Even though the accident is not on your credit report, your credit can be impacted by the accident depending upon the circumstances. You could be sued by the court to pay damages, the insurance company may not cover all the costs of the accident and you can’t pay the difference. Any of these can have a major impact on your credit.
Judgment
If there was a civil suit filed and a judgment, this information would appear on your credit report. Just the existence of the judgment is considered negative, whether it was settled or not doesn’t matter. It is best to pay the judgment, because unpaid judgments are sent to collection agencies, who report this information on your credit report. The result is a judgment and collection account, which will negatively impact your credit even more.
Unpaid or late paid bills
Another situation is the insurance company did not cover all of the costs of the accident and you made late payments or you were unable to pay the difference.
Effective January 1, 2012, North Carolina has added a couple of new court costs in estate matters:
- Will Caveats (will contests) – a $200 filing fee.
- Reopened Estates – a filing fee of 40 cents per $100 of property in the reopened estate. The maximum cumulative fee for estates is $6,000.
These are on top of increased filing fees for estates that took effect last year. As fees to continue to rise, avoiding probate with living trusts and other planning will save even more money.