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Find out how long you're really going to be paying that card off, and how much of your money goes straight to interest.
That tiny minimum payment on your statement feels manageable, but it's designed to keep you in debt as long as possible. Most of it goes to interest, barely touching the principal. You could end up paying for years and still owe almost as much as you started with.
Quick example: $5,000 balance at 20% APR with a $150 minimum payment. Sounds fine, right? But the first month alone, about $83 goes to interest. Only $67 actually reduces your debt. At that rate, you're looking at nearly 4 years to pay it off, and you'll have paid over $1,700 in interest on top of the original $5,000.
Credit card interest compounds monthly. Each month, the bank takes your remaining balance and multiplies it by the monthly rate (your APR divided by 12). That's the interest charge for the month. Your payment first covers that interest, and whatever's left chips away at the actual balance.
This is why high balances feel like they barely move. When you owe a lot, a huge chunk of every payment just feeds the interest. The less you owe, the more each payment actually counts.
The simplest move: pay more than the minimum. Even an extra $50 or $100 a month makes a noticeable difference. Try bumping up the monthly payment in the calculator above and watch the payoff timeline shrink. If you've got multiple cards, focus extra payments on the one with the highest rate first. That's the mathematically optimal approach, and it'll save you the most money overall.