Question about paying my student loan

[PaKettle]

I have a student loan on which I pay about $80/month. It would normally be due this coming week.

I have always paid by net and today I went to pay it and I found that it says the following:

"Current due: 0
Past due: 0
Late charges: 0
Amount due: 0
Due date: 3/21/08"

I know it is not discharged.

But my question is, shouldn't I continue to pay it?
Is there any advantage to paying it vs. not paying it at this time?
Will it help or hinder my credit profile by paying or not paying it?
Why does it say "0 due" even though the loans are never discharged in bankruptcy? (except under extenuating circumstances sometimes)

It looks like the Pay by Net function is still working even though they have me listed as owing nothing, so if I want to pay I can. Personally I'd rather keep paying it rather than extend the months I have to pay. So can I just go ahead and pay it anyway?

Or do I just have to stop paying it until March and then after the discharge they will start billing me again?

Shouldn't they have sent me some paperwork about this instead of my just finding it on their web site?

Thanks for any light you can shed on this!

[lrprn]

Pa, as stated before many times here, student loans during bankruptcy are a black hole with no information about how to handle them included in the law other than that they are not dischargeable except under very unusual circumstances.

Student loan lenders typically do not contact the debtor when they are notified that the debtor has filed bankruptcy. They just put the loans into hibernation (deferment or forbearance) until the bankruptcy is over while they continue to charge interest.

Contact your student loan lender and find out if they will accept payments until your case is discharged and closed. Ours accepts payments (particularly important in Ch 13). Hopefully yours does too.

[PaKettle]

Pa, as stated before many times here, student loans during bankruptcy are a black hole with no information about how to handle them included in the law other than that they are not dischargeable except under very unusual circumstances.

Student loan lenders typically do not contact the debtor when they are notified that the debtor has filed bankruptcy. They just put the loans into hibernation (deferment or forbearance) until the bankruptcy is over while they continue to charge interest.

Contact your student loan lender and find out if they will accept payments until your case is discharged and closed. Ours accepts payments (particularly important in Ch 13). Hopefully yours does too.

Okay, thanks. As with many things with bankruptcy this makes no sense. They're not being discharged so why would I not be able to continue paying them? especially if I choose to? Oh well... I'll call them Monday.

Actually, it might be nice to skip a payment or two during the Holiday season!

[PaKettle]

Just as a follow-up, I called the DOE about my loan and they said there was no problem with my continuing to pay.
I decided to just keep paying it so that MAYBE it will look better on my credit that way, and if not, at least I won't owe a bunch of extra interest.
I was able to make a payment on the net as always, even though it said I owed nothing. (I WISH! ;-) )