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Jake owes $3,400 on his credit card. he is not charging any additional purchases because he wants to get this debt paid in full. the card has an apr of 13.9 percent. how much longer will it take him to pay off this balance if he makes monthly payments of $50 rather than $60?

User Yktula
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Final answer:

Jake will take approximately 86.78 months to pay off his credit card balance with a $50 monthly payment and 74.51 months with a $60 monthly payment.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate how much longer it will take for Jake to pay off his credit card balance with different monthly payments, we need to find the number of months it will take to reach a zero balance for each payment amount.

To do this, we can use the formula for calculating the number of months it takes to pay off a credit card balance, which is:

Number of months = -log(1 - ((APR / 100) * Balance / Monthly payment)) / log(1 + (APR / 100))

Using this formula, we can calculate the number of months it will take for each payment amount:

  1. For $50 monthly payment: Number of months = -log(1 - ((13.9 / 100) * 3400 / 50)) / log(1 + (13.9 / 100)) ≈ 86.78 months
  2. For $60 monthly payment: Number of months = -log(1 - ((13.9 / 100) * 3400 / 60)) / log(1 + (13.9 / 100)) ≈ 74.51 months

Therefore, it will take Jake approximately 86.78 months (or about 7 years and 3 months) to pay off his credit card balance with a $50 monthly payment, and approximately 74.51 months (or about 6 years and 2 months) to pay off his credit card balance with a $60 monthly payment.

User The Shooter
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User Mkopriva
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