ATLANTA,None — An unpaid parking ticket may not seem like a big deal to some, but Channel 2 Action News has learned if you don't pay in the city of Atlanta, it could put a big dent in your credit score.
Nicole Will told Channel 2's Tom Regan her credit score dropped 20 points after she neglected to pay a $25 parking ticket. She said in two weeks the ticket doubled to $50. "You wouldn't think an unpaid parking ticket would bring strikes against your credit report," Will said.
Two months after she received the ticket, Will said she got notices from collection agencies and soon learned her impressive credit score of 775 had fallen to 755.
"It's not like I didn't pay a credit card or defaulted on a car loan," Will said.
Park Atlanta, a privatized ticket collection program, the city of Atlanta is now forwarding delinquent parking tickets to a collection agency.
The unpaid fine is treated like any other unpaid consumer bill and can show up on credit scores, impacting everything from mortgages to consumer loans.
A city official told Regan told an unpaid parking is a debt obligation and a delinquent violator is given sufficient time and warning to pay a ticket before it is forwarded to a collection program.
Some drivers parking on the street in downtown Atlanta told Regan the policy is unfair.
"I think that is ridiculous, parking has nothing to with your credit," Katie Schmid said.
"It's a bit extreme going after someone's credit score for a parking ticket," added Emma Doss.
Regan checked with several other metro Atlanta counties regarding their parking violation policies and found that other counties, including Cobb and DeKalb, did not forward unpaid parking tickets to collection agencies.