In a Ch. 13 - question about Verizon Wireless

[OVisGr8]

My husband and I filed ch.13 on 6/30/08 and had our 341 on 8/11 (all went well).

I am current (and always have been) with my Verizon Wireless account. It is not included in our Chapter 13.

Question: I noticed that Verizon Wireless has changed our billing address to their Bankruptcy division (I get paperless bills, so no biggie). Anyone know why they would do this?

Thanks!
Liz

[Flamingo]

There was a thread about this same thing not too long ago (do a search for Verizon on here). Pull out your Verizon contract and check the terms. If you file BK, Verizon has certain rights under that contract as to what it can do. It always pays to read the small print as to any account before signing, but how many of us actually do?

[OVisGr8]

There was a thread about this same thing not too long ago (do a search for Verizon on here). Pull out your Verizon contract and check the terms. If you file BK, Verizon has certain rights under that contract as to what it can do. It always pays to read the small print as to any account before signing, but how many of us actually do?

thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction -- I should have searched for a similar topic first

Anyway, the good news is that nothing appears to have changed in my account...I am still getting my corporate discount and they haven't charged me any new fees (bill is the same). I was just curious as to why they would change the address.

Also, good advice to read before signing...you are right, most of us never do but it is a habit I will get into.

[lrprn]

It's not unusual for large creditors like Verizon to transfer your billing into an internal division of the company very familiar with the bankruptcy rules around automatic stay. That's all that's happened here.

[EveryDayAdam]

basically, if you are in a chapter 13, no one can attempt to collect any debts while you are in chapter 13...regardless of whether you included those creditors in your BK or not...and regardless of if those debts were incurred after you filed BK.

You aren't supposed to get new debt while in BK13, but it's possible to get incidental debt (forgetting to pay your Verizon Wireless bill, for instance). Verizon probably just did a credit check and saw you filed for BK13. So they transfered your account to their division that knows the BK rules so that if you default or are late, they don't violate the automatic stay.