How do you find out what your credit is?

You can request a copy of your credit report from the three major credit reporting agencies, Experian at 1-888-397-3742, www.experian.com; Equifax at 1-800-685-1111, www.equifax.com, and TransUnion at 1-312-408-1077; www.transunion.com.  Once you get your credit report, the credit rating bureau will also provide you with instructions on how to read the report and how to dispute any incorrect information that it contains.  It is also a good idea to periodically obtain a credit report to be sure that no one else has "stolen your identity" and using your good credit to run up bills.  You can review your credit report once you obtain it and, if you are showing any outstanding delinquencies, you should try to clean those up as soon as possible.

A bad credit report takes  a while to fix.  The law allows negative information to appear on the credit report from seven to ten years.  It takes a long time to re-establish your credit once you get a bad credit report.  Credit is the equivalent of

telling the truth.  If someone give you credit, you make an agreement to pay the money for the credit you received on a timely basis.  If you fail to do so, you lied to the company that provided you with the credit and then you have a credibility problem.  You need to show that you are not a liar and that you will comply with the terms of your agreement based upon the credit that is extended to you.

If you have questions about this or any other real estate matter, please contact Tom Bennett at (617) 531-6574 or tvb@barronstad.com.