Post-discharge, creditor canceling NEW debt as if it were in the ch13 - Questions

[Homero]

Hey Guys,

My wife and I recently completed our Chapter 13 plan and received our discharge. After the discharge, we incurred some debt on a store credit card. I tried to log in to the website to pay my bill on-time, and was unable to log in. I contacted the creditor this morning, and was told that I would not be able to make a payment online, or over the phone, due to our past Chapter 13 filing. They said that we would not be billed further for the debt. I explained to him that the debt was incurred after we received our discharge, and that we did not included it in the Chapter 13 filing because it had been a zero balance card at the time of filing, and for the year or more prior to filing. He said that the account had been open since 2004, and was open at the time of filing, so they would not be able to keep it open today.

I assume that they were updating account information and did a soft credit report inquiry or something. I was under the impression, from many sources, that a card with a zero balance did not need to be included in the ch13 filing. This card now has a bit over $2,000 on it, that I had planned to pay off over the next four months.

Have any of you run into a similar situation with Citibank, or with another creditor? I owe the money, and it wasn't included in the debt. They are telling me they can't take a payment, and that I don't owe the money, even when I clarify that our ch13 case was discharged prior to incurring the debt. I wasn't sure if I should try to escalate my questions to a supervisor, or not.

In a case like this, do they file papers with the court in regards to the card balance, or do they simply write it off?

Looking for advice, thank you in advance for your help.

[justbroke]

While a creditor (or credit card) for which you owe nothing may not do anything to the account while you are in a pending Chapter 13. However, the oversight in many cases is that they do not consider themselves a creditor. You case may have been discharged, but not yet closed. This creditor is being hyper-sensitive to the hyper-technical aspects of the bankruptcy discharge. The creditor is taking the most conservative position. In most cases, creditors usually close every single account upon notice of a bankruptcy, even if the balance is $0 (happened to my Jared's and my CareCredit accounts).

If you can get them to put all that in a writing -- a letter -- then just hold on to that letter. I don't know what will happen after this point.

[LadyInTheRed]

If I were you, I would talk to a supervisor or their BK department to make sure the person you spoke to was correct that they are considering the debt discharged in BK. You don't want to risk having a late payment appear on your credit report post-BK. Keep notes on who you speak with, what they tell you and the dates and times of your conversations in case you need it later.

[justbroke]

Exactly LITR. Exactly!

[Homero]

I gave them a call and spoke with them some more. They would only tell me that they were not, and would not try to collect the debt. I asked for a letter stating this, and they said that they do not send out letters. It sounds like they are closing the account and discharging it.

My concern is that our BK was a Chapter 13, and that they may be expecting some repayment through the plan that was already completed. Perhaps they are just going to write it off as if it were a chapter 7. It's a bit frustrating that they aren't able to tell me more. Like most of the big banks- the reps on the phone probably don't even know who the folks are that process the BK account changes, write-offs, etc. *sigh*

[Slingerland]

$2000 might not be enough for them to pursue it.