young brother ignoring creditors

My brother ran up a $200 phone bill while attending a college in NY (in the Fall of 1998 - he was 18 at the time). He has recently moved in with me in Texas. He assumed that the phone bill "magically" disappeared since he stopped receiving bills while he lived in NY. Just recently we starting getting daily phone calls from a collection agency for this debt (which has now somehow grown to a $600+ debt). What sort of bad things can happen if he does not get this (and other debts) taken care of? (He has the "if I ignore it, it will go away additude"). He will be getting a large inheritance (200K+) and I want to teach him that when you have money, you have to be responsible. I fear that ignoring creditors will cost him big. Am I right? ...and yes I give him the arguement "Bad credit = no loan/mortgage/credit card" which he explains "I'll just buy everything outright with my inheritance, use a secured credit card and then I'll never need good credit". If someone could give me some good advice on what really bad things could happen when you ignore creditors that would be very much appreciated.

I usually don't respond to this type of thread and please don't get angry with my response but it seems to me that someone's little brother is a snot nosed punk that will probably never grow up. About the only thing that will make this kid mature and become responsible is if his parents take the initiative and put a stipulation in the will that will only allow him to have his inheritence once he has proven that he can be responsible with money. The sad thing is that he will probably blow through the 200k within a year or two and then he will be a broke fool with bad credit and then he might have to get a job and become responsible unless someone else in the family is stupid enough to give him another 200k!!! This of course is the worse thing that can happen to him. Most utility companies write this kind of debt off or get a judgement against a debtor in which case they might get their money before he gets his.