Anyone confused about cell service + bankruptcy please read!

[mamaluv]

Unless there is some very recent change, none of the cell phone companies report on time payments to your credit. There is no indication on your credit report that you have cell service.

I agree with this....years ago AT&T reported on my credit report but they stopped a long time ago (maybe 6-7 years ago)

[NoMoreRed]

We have a family plan with ATT with 4 phones. We had it prior to filing and were told by our attorney to list them if we wanted to get out of our contract. Otherwise to just continue paying ontime and not list them. We have had no issues with ATT at all....not during the BK nor now after the discharge. I even made some changes to our plan and still had no issues.

ATT has never reported on our credit....ever.

[Beeheery]

Oh...so having a cell in my own name won't help rebuild my credit???

[Brighterdays]

Oh...so having a cell in my own name won't help rebuild my credit???

Apparently not but it sure will help destroy it if you miss a payment. the same thing goes with most land contracts, buy here pay here car places, utilities(cable,gas,electric...), rental places and some low end credit cards don't even report. It cost money to report to the credit bureaus. I am not sure how much, but you need to check before hand if you are trying to re-build credit.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

I checked on this. I have Verizon with 4 phones. I just went through a nightmare with them... still am sort of.. However, I think our problem stem from multiple things. We listed them on our BK. We were up to date on our phone bill and were not behind. In Dec as a Christmas gift to our daughter we added unlimted texting to her phone. They did not add it to her phone plan and we received a huge bill for like $500.00. Our BK was filed in NOV. However, it didn't hit their system until Jan. They gave us a credit for $10.00. They also changed our account # to the old one with a -2 to keep our phones on.

Oh yeah, unlimited texting does not cover premium texting?? That's another $40.00. They credited back the cost for texting minus the premium texting costs. They kept blaming BK for all of this. My wife spent 2 hours on the phone trying to get it straightened out.

We then went down and spent another 2 hours at a Verizon store trying to get it straightened out. They couldn't figure out their own billing system. It came to the point that they shut off our phones for a couple of hours after telling us that our phones wouldn't be shut off because of a payment we made that should be credited back to us the next billing period.

In the end, I got pissed went down there with all of our phone records printed and told the store manager I was sending all of this to our Attorneys Generals office. I showed him the address of where I was sending everything and left it there. They ended up crediting our account three weeks later and more calls. I am still dealing with this.. even though we don't owe them anything. I think they still owe us money. I just may go ahead and send everything to the AG's office.

So.. don't change your plan at all during bankruptcy.. Look for the -2 on your account # for Verizon to tell you they got you. Now I wonder if I am still in a contract since they changed my account #?

[cmisz]

I am planning to file sometime between now and May. I want to break my Verizon contract and switch to a low cost no-contract service like Boost or Metro PCS. Should I just stop paying Verizon as I have my credit cards, or should I tell them I have to break my contract and let them try to charge their fees, etc until I file?
I have no land-line and have strictly used a cell for years, I use a lot of minutes and texts (80% for work) and am paying close to $100/month to Verizon and could get same or better for $40 at this time. I need to cut expenses due to separation/impending divorce which has left me paying mortgage, utilities etc all on my own.
TIA!

[tigergem]

Yeah, they definitely do not report a good payment history, so no, they do not help your credit at all. But when you start out your contract, they darn sure do a hard pull on your credit report.

I guess I was lucky. My contract with Verizon had already expired just before I filed BK, on my voice line. My wireless internet has another 6 months on the contract, but I am hoping to renew that one. I switched my voice cell service to Page Plus cellular, which is on the Verizon network, but unlimited talk & text for $39.95/month.

Funny last week I got a sales pitch letter from Verizon saying that they thought I was probably paying too much for my cellular service and offered me "such a deal" at $69.95/month.

[aljohnson007]

Don't know that a cell phone account will help in rebuilding credit. I have Verizon and didn't list them as a creditor as they are considered a utility like the power and water bills. I have never seen any of them listed on my credit report.

[flyinbroke]

I remember the hard pull when I got my cell over a decade ago. That was the only time it appeared on my credit report.

[momisery]

We didn't included ours because hubby's work said he had to have one. We have GPS, texting, and internet for his job. Of course it was all commission, so now he doesn't need it because he took a job with a low salary, better than nothing! So, now we are discharged, and paying a huge cell phone bill... 121 per month. I am going to call them but the problem is if you make any changes you end up with a new contract. I think that is so wrong and promotes poor client service as well as good competition. I have Sprint and they have horrible service in my area. So, I am trying to pay it until the contract expires so I can leave them. I keep hoping new providers will come in to the market so we can get better choices. In Europe they do not suffer the drop calls like we do, have better contections, no contracts, and cheaper rates. I do not understand why ours is not at least superior if we have to pay so much more and have all the contract issues.. Geesh.

[tigergem]

I asked Verizon one time about the credit reporting of on time payments, in light of the fact that they had done a hard pull on my credit to establish the account, and the lady laughed, oh no we don't report your account to credit bureaus unless you fail to pay.

[cmisz]

We didn't included ours because hubby's work said he had to have one. We have GPS, texting, and internet for his job. Of course it was all commission, so now he doesn't need it because he took a job with a low salary, better than nothing! So, now we are discharged, and paying a huge cell phone bill... 121 per month. I am going to call them but the problem is if you make any changes you end up with a new contract. I think that is so wrong and promotes poor client service as well as good competition. I have Sprint and they have horrible service in my area. So, I am trying to pay it until the contract expires so I can leave them. I keep hoping new providers will come in to the market so we can get better choices. In Europe they do not suffer the drop calls like we do, have better contections, no contracts, and cheaper rates. I do not understand why ours is not at least superior if we have to pay so much more and have all the contract issues.. Geesh.

So I take it you wish you had included the cell company in your bk?

[LilRed]

BK and Verizon..

We have Verizon, and they were notified..
They didn't drop us, however they just placed us on a new contract number said it was like starting over.. Which I'm ok with. We still have our cell, which is our only phone...

[aces67]

I agree with the others on this. They pull your credit so you can get service but they don't report to your credit unless you stop paying.

[Bell30656]

I am at almost one year since discharge. At the time of my filing a cell phone wasn't an issue because my work provided me with a BlackBerry. Now, that the company is saving a few bucks they found it better to reimburse employees for using their own cell phones than to keep those expensive plans. When I went out to buy a phone I expected the worse. I was sure that there would be no way I was getting anything except a Boost Mobile or Metro PCS (both pre-paid).

I went online and applied for an iPhone with AT&T. I wasn't surprised when the website told me that I couldn't be approved. What did shock me was an hour later when I got a call telling me that the reason I couldn't be approved was that AT&T required a $100 deposit! Only a hundred bucks? I jumped all over it and I love my new iPhone.