They will still show a balance until you are discharged. The balances still exist until discharged. However, they are not able to collect from you until then. (There is a stay of collection.)
Well, it never hurts to start looking at what you can clean up now. However, they won't be 0 balance until discharge. I started with the myfico score watch subscription and when they came out with the 3 score monitoring, I signed up for that. It comes with a report and is a lot cheaper then the $59 for all 3 of them one time. I would say pull reports for free from annualcreditreport.com to start with, then once you get your discharge, get a sub and follow the 24 months to 700 thread here: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Bankruptcy/HOW-TO-From-BK7-discharge-to-700-in-24-months-or-less/td-...
Keep in mind, everyone is different and just adjust it to how you feel most comfortable. That report recommends putting the charge on the new credit one card to help build your credit. (so it has something reporting.)
Hmm. It may be a bit hard. I know I couldn't get Capital One card, even though people say they don't blacklist, I get instant denial for past credit performance on their cards. (I had 3 of them IIB, $300, $500 and $700) and I replaced the Capital One card with a Barclay Rewards card at 7 months post-bk. I was able to get a $1300 limit with that.
I opened a local credit union secured 1 month after discharge. You can also try something like a Merrick secured card as well. Some people have recommended DCU as well, for the credit builder account.
Another option is selflender.com -- I signed up for that last month, but from what I understand, it takes 2 months to appear on your CR.