The Hatfields and McCoys say? 'Avoid Your Personal Finance ...

If you were to just read a brass tacks synopsis of the true story on which the History Channel?s new biopic, The Hatfields and McCoys is based, it would read like the teleplay for an episode of All My Children.

However, the tale of these two feuding families provides us all with a valuable lesson about personal finance. One of the biggest mistakes Americans, and there are many of us, make when they are in debt is refusing to pay smaller, be they disputed debts and communicate with companies, creditors or debt collectors. Just ask the ill-fated characters in this American mythopoetic nightmare about a failure to settle small differences and communicate.

No one can say what went through the minds of the actual men and women who endured the consequences of the real dispute, but from the privileged position of the television audience it looks like a gangland style murder spree was set in motion over one lousy pig.

I once refused to pay, what I rightfully regarded as nothing short of extortion, a final balance of a Comcast bill for service I never received. Having already tangled rhetorically with customer service agents and sales managers, I stopped taking their calls and severed all other forms of communication. Little did I know, being slightly na?ve at the time, was that my incommunicado status would set off a blood bath in my credit report. Pride and hubris murdered my credit score and marred my report for the better part of a decade.

Like the Hatfields and McCoy?s, I would have done well to continue disputing, negotiating or at least communicating with Comcast. When people are talking no one is shooting. Take it from America?s most grievous episode of the Family Feud, what?s the number one way to keep the vigilante credit mob at bay? settle the dispute over the pig equitably.

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