Collections rarely does anything. I mean they will nag you, but you ask them to only contact you in writing, and it basically goes away. The collection agency could sue you, but it's rare. It involves putting together a realistic case (we are sure this person signed this contract and owes us $X) and that is expensive.
The billing your credit card 50% is a "well we tried" type thing. They're happy if it works out, but not unhappy if it doesn't.
In the US, a collection on your credit report can tank your FICO score by more than 100 points, affecting your ability to borrow at the best rate, rent a home, or get certain jobs. This would be a very risky move if the purchase was made in such a way that you are personally liable.
And in Europe collection means all of your bank accounts get frozen and in some countries they even have the power to direct your salary from your employer straight to them until the debt is paid. You definitely don't want to end up in this situation.
Depending on who you're talking to, none of those are realistic prospects anyway. Your borrowing rate will be crap, no matter what, because of your age/credit history/place of residence/skin color (and, if you really need funding, you turn to the BNPL shadow lenders or GFM); you will never earn enough to rent an entire home, or an apartment with a corporate landlord; none of those jobs will ever even look at your resume.
We are reaching a critical mass of people who have no buy-in to these structures because they've been previously cut out.
This has been my experience as well. I was involved with some payment dispute with the New York Times many years ago. I switched from credit card to Apple Pay and they sent my account to collections. I took no action on this because it was in error and my credit score was 830 before and 830 after. The only thing that's ever had an impact on my credit score was buying a house; went down to 800 after that.
It was an error on their part so take that as you will, but... scary letter != inability to borrow money.
(And just for the record, I no longer subscribe to that rag.)
A rather famous example of this is when Columbia House sold off accounts from their scammy operation to a debt collection agency, with many folks unaware that the company claimed they owed money.
>In the US, a collection on your credit report can tank your FICO score by more than 100 points
True, and it sucks, but you can also keep contesting it. I got a few random things off my credit by using the tools provided by the credit agencies to contest them.
The billing your credit card 50% is a "well we tried" type thing. They're happy if it works out, but not unhappy if it doesn't.