Cell. Phone and Making Payments Post-Petition

[DAE]

I'm unemployed and filed for Chapter 7 on April 22, 2011. I have a cell. phone bill due on June 1. I am reaffirming my cell. phone contract and owe just $180 for two months on it (only $90 of which is pre-petition debt).

Does anyone know if I am permitted to pay my unsecured cell. phone bill with pre-petition cash? Since I am unemployed and have earned no new assets since filing, technically everything I have today is owned by the Trustee. I realize I am able to continue making payments on secured debt, but what of unsecured debt like a cell. phone?

Thanks.

[IHateToBeEmo]

I don't think of your cell phone bill as an unsecured debt. It's just a bill for services. No different than your utility bill or rent. You just keep paying the cell phone bill.

[debee]

You're allowed to continue to pay your ordinary bills like electricity, heat, phone, etc.

When people file with unexempted money in their accounts, by the time the trustee asks for it, the original money is normally gone and they end up owing the trustee. You don't have to have the exact same $300 in your bank from filing to discharge. You exempted it and you need it to live on.

Go ahead and pay your bills and if it turns out the cash you had at time of filing is not exempt after all, the worse case scenario is you'll owe the trustee a little something for having spent it.

[DAE]

Thanks. All of my assets I believe to be exempt and the amount were talking about vis-a-vis the cell phone is so minimal, I'm not worried about repayment to the Trustee. My concern lies in making a payment to an unsecured creditor, a 'post-petition preference payment' so-to-speak from pre-petition assets. So the dollar amount doesn't spook me, the act of crossing that line into a prohibited act is what concerns me.

So, do you think I'm okay with regard to 'preference'?

[debee]

I don't see a problem.

[AngelinaCat]

It still isn't really an unsecured creditor, it's a utility, the same as your water, sewer, electricity, or land telephone line.

[DAE]

Thank you all...!