Clark Reynard asked: Are there any fast, quick, reliable methods of forestalling phone disconnection due to failure to pay the bills, and the ugly reconnection fee which ensues thereupon? I can't offer a method of *eliminating* your phone bill, but I have been practicing a method of drastically *reducing* the charge for local phone service. Simply ask Pac Bell (In California) for "Lifeline" service. The monthly bill is $1.31, after "credits" for "inside wire repair" and "Tel Equip" (for buying your own phone(s)). Clark, do you think you could afford that? This gets you a local (outgoing) call allowance of 60 calls per month (about 2 a day). Unlike regular measured service, which measures (and charges) by call *and length of call*, each of your 60 calls under lifeline can be of unlimited length. Back when I had a 2400 baud modem, I frequently had single calls of 2-4 *hours* while uploading & downloading files from various local BB's. Calls beyond your 60-call allowance are charged at $.08 per call. Of course, there's a catch. Lifeline service is only offered to "poor" people. You have to sign a statement every year certifying that your combined family income doesn't exceed their guidlines. But although they warn you that the Public Utilities Commission "may investigate" your claim; they apparently never do! Unlike the PG&E lifeline program, Pac Bell doesn't ask for *any* documentation of your income like W-2 forms or copies of your tax returns. I've been on lifeline service for *years*, I think almost since they started offering it, back when the Bell system was broken up, and local phone rates were raised sharply. During most of that time, I earned around $50,000/year. Now I'm retired & my pension is about $24,000, still well above the lifeline "guideline". One caveat, I live in an area of San Jose where many of my neighbors are working-class, a few on welfare, etc. This scam might not work from an address in Hillsboro, Los Gatos, or Saratoga; but who knows, the PUC may be so incompetent and/or lazy that it might. Considering the moral factors, if you *don't* claim lifeline eligibility, then you are *charged* a few cents a month to pay for the people who *do*! You are also charged $1.75 for "access to a long distance carrier", even if you don't call long distance. (but lifeline customers get an offsetting credit and still have long distance access). So you have to choose to be a sheep or a wolf, a victim or a victimizer, to either take unfair advantage of the system or have it take unfair advantage of you; there is no middle ground. Consider the pragmatic factors. Based on my experience, the chances of getting "caught" seem remote. If I'm ever investigated, I plan to play dumb and claim I didn't understand the lifeline forms I signed. Since I didn't provide any false documentation of a low income (they didn't *ask* for any), be pretty hard to prove intent to commit fraud. So I expect the worst that could happen is that I'd have to pay some estimate of what my correct bill might have been less what I actually paid. I suspect there's a statute of limitations, which I've already exceeded for most of the time I've been on lifeline. So this sounds like a good bet. If you win, you win big; if you lose, you break even, with chances of losing being much less than 50/50.