The Short Answer
You are not legally required to include a creditor with a zero balance on your bankruptcy filing, but in almost every case it is the safer choice to include them anyway. Even a zero-balance account may carry pending interest or fees from the most recent billing cycle that you are unaware of — omitting that creditor could leave you personally liable for those charges. More importantly, creditors routinely learn about bankruptcy filings and will likely close or freeze your account regardless of whether you listed them. Including every creditor protects you and avoids the cost of amending your filing later.
If you have a credit card or a loan with a zero balance, it is a personal decision whether you include them on your bankruptcy. If there no balance, it may not be necessary to include them on your bankruptcy filing; however, it may be in your best interest to include them should there be any fees or interest charges that were placed on your account during the most recent billing cycle.
Regardless of whether you include the creditor on your bankruptcy, the creditor will most likely find out about your bankruptcy filing and terminate your privileges with them. For example, if you have a line of credit with no balance, you will most likely be unable to take any future draws on the line of credit. The same would apply with a credit card. Although you did not include the credit card company on your bankruptcy, they will most likely terminate your card. As a result, attempting to make charges on the credit card after filing bankruptcy could lead to an embarrassing event.
If you have a credit card you would like to retain and use after filing bankruptcy, you will need to contact the credit card company in advance of filing bankruptcy and determine if their policy would allow you to keep the card. A few companies have been willing to allow you to continue to use the credit card after filing bankruptcy; however, that is the exception. Do not wait until after your bankruptcy has been filed to contact the creditor, since they will most likely not be willing to speak with you. In addition, if you fail to include them in your bankruptcy filing and determine there was a balance on the account, you may be charged fees to add them to your bankruptcy. As a result, it is always the safest approach to include the creditor on your bankruptcy filing regardless of whether there is a current balance.
Key Takeaways
- You are not legally required to list a creditor with a true zero balance, but doing so is almost always the right call.
- A billing cycle may have added interest or fees you haven't seen yet, so what looks like a zero balance might not be by the time your case is filed.
- Creditors will likely discover your bankruptcy filing and terminate your account or credit line even if you did not include them.
- If you want to keep a specific credit card after filing, contact that company before you file — not after — to ask about their policy.
- Very few credit card companies allow continued card use post-filing, so do not count on it or attempt charges assuming the card still works.
- Failing to list a creditor and later discovering a balance may require a paid amendment to your bankruptcy schedules.
Attorney Insight
The mistake I see most often is clients assuming a zero-balance account is simply irrelevant to their case and leaving it off their schedules entirely. What they don't realize is that a single billing cycle can flip that zero balance to a balance — an annual fee posts, a trailing interest charge hits — and now they have an unlisted creditor with an actual debt. After nearly 30 years of filing these cases, my default advice is simple: when in doubt, list them. The small effort of including a creditor costs nothing; the amendment fee and the headache of correcting your schedules after the fact absolutely do.
