Reading Your Credit Report

You can't build an accurate payoff plan from memory — balances, minimum payments, and interest rates need to come from your actual accounts and credit report. This lesson is about pulling that data together in one place before Module 2.

Get your free credit reports

US law entitles you to a free credit report from each of the three bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — through AnnualCreditReport.com, the only site authorized by federal law for this. Reports currently remain available for free on a weekly basis. Pulling your report does not hurt your credit score — that's a "soft" inquiry.

What to look for on the report

• Every open account — cards, loans, and lines of credit — with current balance and credit limit.
• Payment history — any accounts marked late, and how late (30/60/90+ days).
• Accounts in collections — these need special attention since they can carry different negotiation options than a live account.
• Hard inquiries — recent applications for new credit, which briefly affect your score.
• Errors — an account that isn't yours, a balance that's wrong, or a late payment you actually made on time. Each bureau has a formal dispute process, and errors are common enough that it's worth checking carefully.

Build your debt inventory

Your credit report tells you what exists — but for a payoff plan you also need the interest rate (which reports don't always show) and minimum payment for each account. Pull those from your card/loan statements or online account, and build a simple table:

Debt	Balance	APR	Minimum Payment
e.g. Card A	$—	—%	$—
e.g. Card B	$—	—%	$—
e.g. Auto loan	$—	—%	$—

This table — balance, rate, minimum payment, for every debt you owe — is exactly what the next module's snowball and avalanche strategies are built on. Once it exists, choosing and running a payoff method takes minutes, not hours.