This post originally appeared March 29, 2018 on CreditCards.com as “Unpaid cable termination fees can seriously hurt your credit“
By Barry Paperno
Dear Speaking of Credit,
I have a cable company charging me a $200 early termination fee. The only reason I’m terminating them is that the price of my bill keeps hiking up and up. If I don’t pay that fee, can they turn it into collections and hurt my credit? – Taylor
Dear Taylor,
Fortunately for many consumers, collections for such odd debts as parking tickets, court fees and library fines can no longer appear on credit reports.
For this we can thank the portion of the National Consumer Assistance Plan adopted by the credit bureaus in 2017, prohibiting collections on credit reports that don’t arise from a contract or agreement to pay.
Unfortunately for you, however, that early termination fee remains something you agreed to, though undoubtedly embedded deep within the microscopic font of the cable TV service contract.
Now that you are apparently terminating that service earlier than the contract called for, the cable company can indeed come after you for that early termination and other related fees.