Payment to the Electric Company Before the Sabbatical Year to Prevent Issues

Hello, I have a debt to the electric company. Am I required to pay the debt before Rosh Hashanah to prevent the company from claiming the debt after Rosh Hashanah, or is it irrelevant because it is a debt that is not annulled?

Debts to a telephone company or an electric company are considered as 'recorded as a loan' and the debt is annulled. Therefore, if you received a notice to pay the debt before Rosh Hashanah, you should ensure to pay the debt by then.

We learn in the Tractate Shevi'it (Chapter 10, Mishnah 1) that the Sabbatical year annuls loans with or without a document. "Store credit" is not annulled, but if it was made into a loan, it is annulled. "Wages" are not annulled, but if they were made into a loan, they are annulled. In explaining why "store credit" and "wages" are not annulled, two approaches are given. The first approach, which is the opinion of most Rishonim, see Tosafot, Gittin 18a, Tosafot, Ketubot 55a, and other Rishonim like Ramban and Ritva, and Meiri, Gittin 37, is that only a loan is annulled, but a debt incurred through a sale or wages, or in any other way, is not annulled. The second approach is the opinion of Rambam, according to the explanation of Beit Yosef (Choshen Mishpat, Siman 67) and Kesef Mishneh (Chapter 9, Laws of Shemitah and Yovel, Halacha 11), and this is the ruling in Sema (Siman 67, Sifkat 26) and in Shulchan Aruch HaRav (Laws of Loans, Section 39), that not only a debt incurred by a loan is annulled, but any debt is annulled, even if it was incurred through a sale or work or in any other way. However, the reason "store credit" and "wages" are not annulled is because in their time, it was customary to buy on store credit for a long period, and only when a very large amount accumulated, they would pay. Thus, by the end of the Sabbatical year, it was not yet a debt due for collection, and therefore it is not annulled. Similarly, regarding "wages", it was customary not to pay immediately but only after a large amount accumulated, and by the end of the Sabbatical year, it was not yet a debt due for collection. There is a practical difference between these two approaches: in our time, when it is generally customary to pay after a short period, such as a monthly salary paid to an employee, according to most Rishonim, it is not annulled because it is not a debt due to a "loan", while according to Rambam, it is annulled. Similarly, "store credit" in our time, when it is customary to pay once a month, according to most Rishonim, it is not annulled (if it was not made into a loan) because it is included in the category of "store credit", but according to Rambam, it is annulled because the "store credit" mentioned in the Mishnah refers only to a case where by the end of the Sabbatical year, the debt is not due for collection. However, even in the case of "store credit", if it was "recorded as a loan", the debt is annulled [and this is the intention of the aforementioned Mishnah "if it was made into a loan, it is annulled"]. Regarding "recorded as a loan", there are many opinions, and we will list some of them: the opinion of Rosh (Tractate Gittin, Chapter 7, Siman 17), that it is setting a time for repayment of the debt before Rosh Hashanah, and the opinion of Mordechai (Tractate Shevuot, page 8 according to Mordechai), if he wrote the summary of all the debt together. (Azmera Leshimcha, Laws of Shemitah).