I am not rooted so I don't know. I do though pay my bill over the phone. You can choose to have them save your information or not regarding how you pay.
The only way you will know if you can still use visual voice mail is to try setting it up again.
I agree having bloatware is a pain but o never open up the apps they don't bother me. I like having the backup assistant and even if I didn't my Google account saves everything. So I am set either way if I upgrade or should have issues and have to do a factory reset.
My phone runs well not rooted.
Having what you need on your phone is a personal preference. I like the apps from Verizon that I choose to use.
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