Minimum Credit Card Payments Increase
Are you struggling to make ends meet? Are you drowning in debt? The credit card companies don’t care… and they’re jacking up the minimum payment you now much make from around 2% of your balance to 4%. Are the credit card companies evil? No, part of the reason is because they’re getting pressure by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the new Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. In that new act, credit card companies will need to post on your credit card statement how long you’ll be in debt if you keep making only the minimum payment. Well, news flash folks, if you just make minimum payments then you’ll be in debt the rest of your life.
Honestly, I don’t think credit card companies want to raise the minimum payment because the smaller that payment is the more money they’ll be able to extract out of debtors. However, posting that you’ll be in debt for the next 40 years might shock you into getting your finances in order and ridding yourself of that crushing debt. The good thing is everyone will pay less in interest to the credit card companies. The bad thing is everyone will now have to double their monthly payments and that’ll be very painful for those who are barely making those payments.
If you find yourself in the second category, of barely making payments, you need to have a heart to heart with yourself and take an honest look at your finances. That and start reading the Carnival of Debt Reduction. 
Print Article
Email Article
Stumble It!
Bookmark
reddit.com
Tags:
| Related Posts |
Did you like this article? If so, you can get all the latest articles delivered to your email inbox for free each morning by entering your email address in the box below. Your email will only be used to deliver this once-daily subscription and you can unsubscribe at any time.
There are 5 comments, add your thoughts now!
Amen. While there will surely be short-term pain from this, in the long-term anything that makes people recognize the folly of credit card debt is a good thing.
I have a friend who considers the price of an item to be how much he has to spend each month to service the debt. If he wants a $500 TV, he figures it’s only $10/month, and he can afford that.
And as a result he’s still paying for that TV he bought 4 years ago, and got rid of last year before moving. Some people won’t behave reasonably until they’re scared into it.
I remember in my 7th grade math class we did some problems that computed interest payments. It was related to savings growth, not interest paid on debt. After that, I don’t remember ever hearing any teaching on interest or debt, all the way through high school.
This information is usually found out the hard way.
Thanks for mentioning the Carnival of Debt Reduction! Some of the regular contributors are doing yeoman’s service getting out of debt.
[...] By now, if you have a credit card, you’re probably already well aware that the credit card’s minimum monthly payment is increasing. As a person with debt, and a previously bad credit record and someone who is now in the process of that repair, I have to ask… Is from 2% to 4% enough? Is it enough to deter someone from getting a credit card? Is it enough to encourage debt to be resolved earlier, with less interest being paid to the banks? [...]
[...] An article on Blueprint for Financial Prosperity entitled Minimum Credit Card Payments Increase, in addition to reminding his readers that minimum payments on credit card balances are doubling from 2% to 4%, reminds everyone of the high cost of paying only the minimum balance. [...]
[...] Guess it’s just me, but I haven’t seen an iota of difference (outside of the decrease because of lower balances) in my required minimum payments on my credit cards despite reading several postings on how big increases are on the way. Personally I doubt it would matter much because I plan to be paying substantially more than the minimum anyway. [...]
Previous Article: « Sharebuilder $65 and $85 Bonus Promotion Codes
Next Article: Cinderella Man »