cell phones

[okiemom2008]

My husband and I are filing mid-Jan possibly February. I have a 476 bill with Cingular past due. They said if I do not make 240 of it today I will get turned off and have to pay a 35 fee to get it back on. My bill is supposed ot be 170 plus taxes a month for cell phone and internet. Somehow it is about 230 a month when I do not go over anything.

Anyway, I call to tell them I only have 100 today-not 240. She says they cannot make another payment arrangment and if I do not pay the 240 they are turning it off. Should I pay them the 100 and hope they dont turn me off. I am thinking of just starting fresh with Sprint and opening an account today before I file bk. And just letting the 476 go to collections with cingular.

Should I do this? Would this be fraud since I am just letting it go to collections and starting new?

[applecake]

I'm no expert, but from what I understand, you can use your BK to get out of your cell phone contract. I was (am) in almost the exact same situation as you, with Verizon wireless. Even though it was supposed to cost $100 or so, each month seemed to be a $250 bill - even without any major overages.

I was so happy to learn that we could just let it go and get what we owed discharged, and out of our contract. It's not fraud. I think it feels that way because it's in our nature to want to pay what we agreed to pay. I think for many of us, filing BK at all is difficult because of the right/wrong dilemma we feel inside. My feeling about fraud is, if you're committing it, you know it darn well.

But back to the cell phone issue, what we did was let the big expensive contract go, let the phones get turned off, and bought prepaid phones and minutes. There are actually some pretty decent plans out there. This way, we are in control of how much we spend on cell phones each month, not the other way around.

HTH!

[okiemom2008]

I'm no expert, but from what I understand, you can use your BK to get out of your cell phone contract. I was (am) in almost the exact same situation as you, with Verizon wireless. Even though it was supposed to cost $100 or so, each month seemed to be a $250 bill - even without any major overages.

I was so happy to learn that we could just let it go and get what we owed discharged, and out of our contract. It's not fraud. I think it feels that way because it's in our nature to want to pay what we agreed to pay. I think for many of us, filing BK at all is difficult because of the right/wrong dilemma we feel inside. My feeling about fraud is, if you're committing it, you know it darn well.

But back to the cell phone issue, what we did was let the big expensive contract go, let the phones get turned off, and bought prepaid phones and minutes. There are actually some pretty decent plans out there. This way, we are in control of how much we spend on cell phones each month, not the other way around.

HTH!

Who did you end up going with? How much is it per month on average? Thanks!

[Bandit]

My husband and I are filing mid-Jan possibly February. I have a 476 bill with Cingular past due. They said if I do not make 240 of it today I will get turned off and have to pay a 35 fee to get it back on. My bill is supposed ot be 170 plus taxes a month for cell phone and internet. Somehow it is about 230 a month when I do not go over anything.

Anyway, I call to tell them I only have 100 today-not 240. She says they cannot make another payment arrangment and if I do not pay the 240 they are turning it off. Should I pay them the 100 and hope they dont turn me off. I am thinking of just starting fresh with Sprint and opening an account today before I file bk. And just letting the 476 go to collections with cingular.

Should I do this? Would this be fraud since I am just letting it go to collections and starting new?

if you are going BK, i would not pay them anything. you can include the contract and anything you owe it in BK.
Then, stop using them, go to Best Buy & get yourself a new phone with a company that offers both contracts & non contracts.
Centenial
T Mobile
Virgin
Verizon
to name a couple.

Unless you are getting Nextel commercial radios for business, sprint is no better than non contracted companies. IMO

& no, it is not fraud to change your phone service & dump the old one.
My thoughts on that matter.

[applecake]

Well, for the teenagers with their crazy texting obsession, we got them Virgin Mobile. The voice plan doesn't offer a whole lot for them (maybe 500 min. a month) and that's like $25. But for $10 more, they have totally unlimited texting. That's a good deal and they're in hog heaven. And so am I because I know exactly how much I am going to pay each month, and not a penny more.

DH & I got Net 10. We really don't use our cell phones for anything unusual, so for about $20 a month each, that's fine for us. The phones are kinda crappy compared to our other ones, but I think it's a small price to pay. It's a phone for pete's sake. Who cares. Clearly I have bigger problems in my life right now! LOL

[jpntx]

What about if AT* wireless Also know as cing*lar are you local service providers. for example if you default on your wireless contract, will they discontinue providing local services. I have combine billing.

I'm in the same situation, filing in a couple of months and would like to get rid of the contract.
In the area where I live I'm not aware of other local phone service providers. I work from home so I have to Have a landline. Will the blacklist you if you bk on them?