Question

Your reading material illustrates a typical example of what happens if you pay just the minimum monthly payment every month on a credit card balance, In this example, approximately how long will it take to pay off the original dept completely?

Answer 1

Answer: Most credit cards only require you to make a minimum payment each month, which is typically a fixed amount, often $20 to $25, or a percentage of your balance, usually 1 to 3 percent. Paying the minimum is tempting, especially if your budget is tight. But the less you pay now, the more you’ll pay later.

Carrying a credit card balance not only means you’ll be in debt longer, but it also means you can rack up massive amounts of interest, thanks to exorbitant, oftentimes double-digit interest rates.

Step-by-step explanation:

To give you an idea of just how costly it can be to pay only the minimum on your credit card, personal finance site NerdWallet crunched the numbers and determined the interest costs of paying off debt. It assumed credit card debt of $6,081, which is what the average household with revolving credit card debt owes, and an interest rate of 14.99 percent.