Question about a phone payment plan that I have on my petition.

[Strelok]

I had a phone plan with Verizon Wireless that I included in my bankruptcy petition. My wireless account was thus recently disconnected, however it shows a remaining balance of what I have left to pay off the phone which is $80. I had financed a phone with Verizon where I would make $20/mo payments.

I haven't received my discharge yet, but will I be obligated to still pay what is due on the remaining balance?

[justbroke]

You are not obligated to pay that amount. In fact, they shouldn't be billing you at all if you included them in your bankruptcy (and on their address was on the mailing matrix). I know this from experience with Sprint. They were very nice. I called them and they removed the installment and did not bill me after that. They even set up a new account for me with no deposit.

Make sure you included them in the bankruptcy petition and that they were on the mailing matrix. Verizon is quite aggressive with collections. You may want to call them and see if you can speak with the bankruptcy department and make sure everything is marked as included in bankruptcy and that they are no longer going to bill you.

[bcohen]

You are not legally obligated to pay anything to Verizon for any debt or fees which were incurred prior to filing. In fact, it is entirely possible that even if you pay Verizon this $80 balance, they will still mark the phone as a "bad ESN" and not allow it to be activated ever again. You are much better off to put that money toward a new phone on a different provider.

[justbroke]

bcohen , from what Sprint told me, they can't mark a phone (from a discharged installment plan) as bad ESN because the contract is specifically a non-PMSI and they don't have a security interest in the phone. It's unsecured. Marking the phone as a bad-ESN would be... bad ju ju (stay violation). (Secretly, I wished that Sprint tried marking my equipment as "bad". I would have loved to file my famous motion for sanctions (I'm 3 for 4 on the win side).

But definitely agree that you shouldn't pay Verizon as the debt is discharged.

[Strelok]

Thank you very much for the responses. I contacted the carrier and they took care of the balance.