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The Bare Minimum: Why You Should Avoid Paying Only the Minimum Payment
By Daniel Cohen
The minimum payment or the minimum due is typically the minimal amount that you pay every month in order to avoid being late on your payments or going past due. You must pay the minimum due before the due date in order to prevent delinquency or defaulting on your account.
Generally, the minimum due is 2 percent of the balance due. Experts encourage you to pay more than the minimum due to avoid paying excess finance charges. However, there is a common myth amongst people who think that they can avoid financial tension by paying only the minimum due each month. Suppose you have a $1000 balance on your account with a 13%APR. Consider that you are a sort of person who makes minimum payments on time. You will owe over $550 after three years and you will still be in debt for that one time charge with that card. If by any event, you are late on some other card payments and your card issuer raises the interest on this particular card due your defaulting on other credit cards, then you will be clearly in credit card debt.
It is better to pay off the balance in full every month. Otherwise there is a fair chance of your incurring interest charge and falling into a debt trap. Experts have observed that a minimum due of $50 per month on a credit card of a balance of $3900 is something which can be never paid off only on the strength of minimum payments each month. Let's say that there is an 18 percent APR on a balance of $4000, then the minimum payment will come to $80. If you make the minimum payment, only $20 will go towards getting out of the debt. At this rate, it will take more than 11 years to pay off the card and you will pay a substantial amount as financial charges.
So it is always important to pay the balance in full every month and do not go into the habit of revolving your balances. Use your credit card only when required and make an attempt to pay more than the minimum due. If you just pay the minimum due, it will definitely cost you more in terms of finance charge and interest making the credit card company richer in revenue.
About the Author
Daniel Cohen recommends Find Credit Cards for comparing different BankFIRST credit cards. See http://www.findcreditcards.org/issuer/bankfirst.php for more information.
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/24626.html
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