They have now stopped making those silly automated collection calls. Obviously they have given up. I have now spoken to a friend who used to be involved in the collection agency business. As a result of the conversation I have discovered that collection agencies are nothing but paper tigers and in 90 percent of cases you have nothing to fear from them whether the amount is large or small.

I was quite surprised to hear they give up just as quickly with large amounts as they do with small ones. Their bottom line is the money they earn from the debt and if they see very clearly that they are not going to be paid whatever happens they simply give up in the end. It might take a long time before they give up but give up they will. They don't want to waste their time and will go on to the next sucker who is liable to give in to their intimidation and harassment.

The worst that can happen is that you can be sued. But that is not the responsibility of the collection agent anyway. They virtually never sue anyone. It is the client that has to make the decision to sue and the very fact that they have turned the account over to a collection agency is an indication they can't be bothered. They have to pay the agency money and their logic is "Well, whatever we get is better than nothing. We will let the agency have the hassle and we will take what we can get"

That means they are unlikely to sue since they could have done that in the first place. The very fact that they have turned it over to a collection agency in the first place is an indication they have given up on the debt. And since they have given up on the debt they are hardly likely to pay court fees up front to chase something which even then they may not get anywhere.

So the agency will never sue because they don't have the authority to do so and the client won't bother either because of what I just outlined. The worst the agency can do is make a bad report on your credit file which may be shot to hell anyway. But they will not sue. Take it from me.

Collection agencies can threaten and intimidate but they only collect on a small percentage of the debts owed. And this puts them in the same category as telemarketers. I think if they are thought of as nothing but irritating telemarketers you have nothing whatsoever to fear from them.

As I said in the beginning. Paper tigers.

Oh, they are still calling me with an automatic dialler. I am still ignoring them. I shall continue to do so and not reply to them until another year is up. Then the Statute of Limitations sets in. I shall phone them then and tell them to go play in the traffic. They will be told they have been calling the wrong person and if they ask me to verify my identity I will inform them I don't give private information over the phone and if they continue calling I will inform Bell Canada and have their phone terminated.

We will see if they are daft enough to sue me within the next year.

interesting

I thank Joe and Richard for their input so far. Of course Columbia House is not a collection agency from what I gather but an individual company. I wouldn't imagine that a collection agency would sue for such a small amount although I may be wrong.

I believe Columbia house has been ripped off so much, they wanted to send a message they will sue no matter how the low the amount is. I think at the end of the day my friend had so much debt, he filed for bankruptcy.

Well just goes to show you, any contract can be sued on.

I just don’t see how that can be profitable to sue such a tiny balance, it would be a colossal waste of money to sue any significant amount of those in collection because the collection recovery curve on those types of debts is REALLY abysmal.

What did your friend do at the end of the day?

RichardC,

I couldn't believe it myself, till a friend of mine showed me the judgment from 1996 that Columbia house sued him for $ 23.00 dollars, and after it was all said it done the debt became $140.00 including court cost etc.

Colombia house suing for $45? Where did you hear that Joe?

Its just the worst business decision to sue for such a small balance.

I heard of companies like Columbia house suing people for balances lower then $45.00 and was awarded the judgment by the court. I believe it’s a matter of principal with some creditors and rather see the person suffer for six years with bad credit then getting their money back. If you decided to pay them back, the $45.00 debt will end up being $645.00 because of the legal fees, court cost and interest fees.

I dont think there is any minimum but if I remember correctly the cost to file a small claim in Ontario is around $75... so why would it be worth it to them to sue you??

More then likley they will call over and over with an automatic dialler. Do a search here in my recent posts there's one about sending a letter to the agency inviting legal action and calls have to stop, Its in the collection act.