Monday Mailbag 10/15/2018
Question:
My credit card debt keeps increasing. I keep spending and spending, it’s very hard for me to stop. How do I stop spending and pay down my credit card debt?
Answer:
If you don’t have the self-control to stop using your credit cards then you really only have one option to pay down your debt. Cut up all of your credit cards and use a debit card or cash for your monthly expenses. Create a budget to make sure that your expenses are lower than your income and have money saved over at the end of the month to pay down your credit card debt.
Question:
What does an outstanding judgment on a credit report mean?
Answer:
A judgment refers to a court’s decision to side against you in a lawsuit.
Basically, it means that someone (person or company) filed a civil lawsuit against you, won, and a judgment was entered against you.
An outstanding judgment refers to the fact that the judgment is unpaid and still open.
In most cases, we see judgments originate from charged-off credit cards or other collection accounts. Ultimately, a court has decided that you are liable for the debt.
A judgment may also give the plaintiff (the person or company which filed the judgment against you) legal authority to garnish your wages, garnish your tax refund, or even access the money in your bank accounts to recover their funds.
According to the FCRA, judgments can report for a period of up to 7 years on consumer credit files from the filing date.
Question:
How long does it take to remove inquiries from a credit report?
Answer:
Hard inquiries can report on consumer credit reports for a period of up to 2 years from the date that they are initiated. A hard inquiry may be removed before the 2-year clock expires if the creditor which is reporting the inquiry cannot provide documented proof of their permissible purpose for pulling your credit report.
If you wish to challenge the inquiry you can contact the creditor reporting the inquiry directly and request that they verify their permissible purpose for pulling your credit report or hire a credit repair service to verify this information on your behalf.
Question:
How accurate is the credit score you get on Mint.com?
Answer:
Mint.com’s credit score is calculated using the VantageScore v3.0 scoring model.
This is the same model used by Wallethub, Credit Karma, and other free credit monitoring services.
90% of all lending decisions in the U.S. are made using FICO credit scores. Depending on the information reporting in your credit reports, your VantageScore and FICO score might only be 5 points off of 50 points off.
Every situation is different and sometimes the VantageScore is very accurate but, sometimes it’s completely off. If you’re interested in seeing your actual FICO scores you can access them at myFICO.com.
Are you ready to get started on your journey toward a better credit score?