You’re going to pay penalties for your account going negative no matter what. When an account goes negative, it’s not just collections you need to worry about. It’s your Qualifile score that’s gonna tank. When you try to open an account anywhere, your most likely account is going to be whatever “second chance” account that institution offers. These accounts are often restricted. Sometimes you can’t have debit cards, only ATM cards. They’re often accounts with heavy monthly maintenance fees. And if you’re thinking you can just close the account and immediately open a new one to avoid the reporting, sorry to say many institutions now do repeated Qualifile checks after you open an account. So you might slip through initially, but after that one month mark when they review and potentially pull it again, you’re at risk of that account being shut down too. Trying to just dodge the issue isn’t really the best way to go about this.