Court System:

See "The Structure of the Courts" from North Carolina Supreme Court. Excellent, and linked here.

The court system in North Carolina consists of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Superior Court, and District Court.   Credit and collection cases are generally determined by the Superior Court and District Court.
 

 Superior Courts:  Superior court has original jurisdiction of all civil actions involving money claims in which the amount in controversy exceeds $10,000. (§ 7A-243.)

District Court:   The District Court Division has jurisdiction of all civil cases in which the amount in controversy of $10,000 or less.  (§ 7A-243.) State is divided into four divisions containing districts. For more detail, See "The Structure of the Courts" from North Carolina Supreme Court. Excellent.

Small Claims Court:   The Small Claims Division has jurisdiction over civil cases in which the only principal relief prayed is monetary, or the recovery of specific personal property, or summary ejectment, and the amounts in controversy does not exceed  $3,000. (§7A-210(1).)

Civil cases involving amounts not over $3,000 may, under certain conditions, be assigned to a magistrate for trial as a "small claims" action. A jury may be requested in civil case before a district court judge but not magistrate. Generally, parties are represented by attorneys in district court while they appear on their own in trials before a magistrate. However, North Carolina law does not prohibit attorneys from representing clients in small claims court,  and allows parties to represent themselves in any court in the state. For more detail see "The Structure of the Courts" from North Carolina Supreme Court, which is linked here.