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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 ^[3]. 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 ^[4].