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July 29, 2005
Credit Card Payment Calculator
Do you really know how much you will pay your credit card company if you make the minimum payments each month? Do you know how long it will take, even if you never charge another dollar to your card? This calculator will tell you, and the answers might surprise you.
There is good news, though. If you can afford to pay even a tiny bit above the minimum payment, it can dramatically reduce both the time it takes to pay off the debt and the total amount of interest you wind up paying.
After you use this calculator to see how long it will take to pay off your credit card with the minimum payment, try playing with the "smallest amount charged by your credit card each month" value. If you can afford to pay more than that each month, put it in there, and hit the "Calculate" button again. See what a difference it makes!
Remember, increasing your minimum payment will only help if you stop charging more purchases and maxing out your credit card. But it's worth it!
The Calculator
Posted by Frank at July 29, 2005 12:59 PM
Comments
Posted by: MrE
at July 31, 2005 10:02 PM
I love programs like this :) I used one just over a year ago to see how long it would take me to pay of a 5K credit card debt at 9% interest, and I was shocked to see how long it would take me at minimum repayments. After that my husband and I made a plan to put $500 a month off our credit card, which wasn't easy considering we both had low-paying jobs that year, but we did it; and the feeling of not having that debt over our heads is amazing and well worth the effort :)
The other valuable thing we learned while doing this was how to not use the credit card for any purchases, since we didn't want to cut into our hard-earned $500 monthly repayments. So by the time the card was payed off, we hadn't even used it in a year, and there was no temptation to start again.
Every month now my credit company still sends me a bill with $0.00 owing and I probably feel far too smug when I open it ;) Next is the car, $13,000 owing on that, but at least now we know it can be done one repayment at a time.
Posted by: Harmony
at August 2, 2005 9:54 PM
please i have a credit card but i did not know the excat amount on it, and i will need your help to tell me where and what site will i test the credit card to know the amount credited on it.
Posted by: lizy
at August 16, 2005 9:58 AM
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» Credit Card Debt from Young Miser
In addition to what was posted about credit card debt from hellodollar, one way to reduce interest paid over the life of your credit card balance is to make several payments per month. This helps because the interest you get charged every month is ca... [Read More]
Tracked on August 15, 2005 6:51 AM
There are some excellent free software programs on Zilchworks.com (http://www.zilchworks.com/FreeStuff.html ) that do the same calculation. But, the real eye opener is their Credit Card Math program that explains in very simple terms the true hidden cost of carrying debt on credit cards. It is truly outrageous that credit card companies actually prolong your debt. But, I read in paper recently that the new changes in the bankruptcy law does force credit card companies to show you how long it will take to pay off a debt and I think it also encourages them to set minimum payments so that your cards will be paid off in 5 years rather than 10 - that may be why you will see higher minimum payments required on some cards soon.