Oh, the injustice of it all.
Who among us hasn’t felt abused as a consumer? We get billed for stuff we didn’t receive, or that doesn’t work, or that didn’t live up to its hype. Companies charge us unexpected fees and insist the costs were revealed in the fine print. Health insurers take customer disservice to a whole new, awful level, inexplicably refusing to pay for services they promised to cover and deluging us with impossible-to-decrypt paperwork.
It’s understandable if you feel that enough is enough. But taking a righteous stand against paying an unfair bill can boomerang on you—hard.
Here are some situations where you might be tempted to refuse to pay, and what you might want to consider doing instead.
BILLING DISPUTES
Several years ago a friend refused to pay a bill for Internet service that didn’t work. The collection account that later appeared on his credit reports nearly cost him a job offer. (He paid off the collection and wound up taking a job with a different employer.)
The balance of power is tilted heavily in favor of companies and collection agencies that can report an unpaid bill to the credit bureaus. You can include a 100-word dispute in your credit files, but good luck getting anyone to read it. The credit scores most lenders and insurers use don’t factor in those statements. Employers, who typically use credit reports rather than scores to evaluate applicants, may see your statement, but it may not affect hiring, firing or promotion decisions.
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