Honest to god, it's unbelievable. No one is going to take you to court for a lousy 100 bucks- so forget that. It also very unlikely to ever get reported to a credit bureau and even if it does, just dispute it.

As for a collection agents bugging me over minutiae like this; they would have lasted 12 seconds, not 12 months.

You now have all the information you will ever need about this case. Trust me.

Ray

If it were me....

1) Before making any decision I would check the contract carefully.
2) I would check the credit bureau.

If there is nothing in the credit bureau, I would simply inform them, in writing, that you wish to have the creditor sue you. In my opinion, odds are better that the original creditor will not sue you than that they will.

If there is something in the bureau, I would start by issuing a statement to the credit bureau that the item is in dispute and request that this information be placed on your file. If the contract says nothing about cancellation fees then I would go after the insurance agency. If it does, and you want to salvage your credit rating, go to the insurance company and try to work something out with them... offering to pay if they will remove all records of the deficiency from your report.They may say they can't do that.... but they can. If your rating is still high enough to acquire credit, or you don't anticipate needing more credit in the next 6 years... especially with the dispute notation on the file, I would simply, again, notify the collector that you wish to be sued and then wait it out.

Keep in mind... this is only the advice of a bookkeeper with an attitude problem. The real decisions are your own.

Yes..I kept all the paperwork...I'll have to look up the cancellation part...see if there really is a fine/fee.

Of some sort... yeah.

Do you still have your policy/contract?

What do you mean by go after them? Lawsuit?

You're bullish...I'm stubborn!

I wonder, though, if you could grab the bull by the horns and go after them...

I would... but I'm pretty bullish from time to time ;)

The worst that can happen is that the creditor takes you to court, gets a judgement, garnishes your wages, or has the sheriff drop buy your house and repossess items.

You'll get a judgement reported on your credit report, along with the collection agencies note, the creditors R9 rating etc.

Potentially you'll get 3 bad reporting items on your credit report.

That's the worst that can happen.

Do you still have your original policy? There should be a "cancellation" clause.

No... there's not.

I am in Ontario..I'll take a look to see what the equiv law is here.

In the mean time...I guess I should now ask what happens next? Is there worse they can do than going to court?

If I have to go to court I will...I have paperwork (not a lot mind you) that proves how much they took and how much I paid...but that changes now that they are calling it a cancellation penalty.

My credit rating is spotless up to this point...and as much as going to court would be time out of my job (self-employed) I hate the idea of giving in and paying them just to make them go away.