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Credit Card Tracker (PDF)Get Smart About Credit Publications Publications Order Form (PDF)Avoid the Minimum Payments Trap!PowerPoint PresentationsHelpful Web sitesPowerPay Your Way Out of DebtOrder Credit Card Trackers



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Marsha Goetting
Extension Economics
P.O. Box 172800
Bozeman, MT 59717

Tel: (406) 994-5695
Fax: (406) 994-4838
Location:208C Linfield
goetting@montana.edu

> Home > Family Economics

 

Avoid the Minimum Payments Trap!

Learn the true costs of paying the monthly minimum on your credit cards!

Let’s say you have a total balance of $4,000 on your credit cards. If you pay just the 2% minimum payment every month, you would pay a total of $13,843 for your debt, including $9,843 in interest charges, and you would have to make payments for 34 years! (This example assumes that you don’t charge more...which maybe unrealistic for many Montana families).

However, if you doubled your minimum payment every month, you would only be in debt for 10 years and pay $2,222 in interest, saving $7,621.


Minimum Payment Situations:

The slide calculator for finding answers to the situations below is contained in a packet that is free to Montana residents.  Click here to go to the Advantage Publications Web site to order.


Answers for the Credit Card Trivia within each example (PDF File)


PowerPoint Presentation: 

 

 

View Text-only Version Text-only Updated: 2/22/08
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