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yournamehere · 06-16-2003, 08:33 PM

Cut every one of those evil little fuckers in half and pay off the balance as soon as you can.

Look at it this way - if you charge $5000 at 18% interest (and I'm simplifying the math here), you're going to be charged 1/12th of that 18%, or 1.5%, every month. Credit card companies usually set the minimum payment at between 1.5% to 2.0% of the remaining balance. If you're paying only 1.5% of the balance at that interest rate - guess what - your balance never goes down - in twenty years, you'll still owe $5000.
If your minimum payment is 2%, only 0.5% of it goes to your principal. In other words, you pay $100/month, but your balance only goes down $25. It will take you a whole year to bring your balance down just $300. It will take 16 years and 9 months to pay it off.

And don't be hung up on credit ratings - all they do is inform credit companies how likely you are to become enslaved to their usury.

Get yourself into a good income:debt ratio - that's really what matters.

06-16-2003, 08:33 PM	#15 (permalink)
yournamehere Invisible Location: tentative, at best	Cut every one of those evil little fuckers in half and pay off the balance as soon as you can. Look at it this way - if you charge $5000 at 18% interest (and I'm simplifying the math here), you're going to be charged 1/12th of that 18%, or 1.5%, every month. Credit card companies usually set the minimum payment at between 1.5% to 2.0% of the remaining balance. If you're paying only 1.5% of the balance at that interest rate - guess what - your balance never goes down - in twenty years, you'll still owe $5000. If your minimum payment is 2%, only 0.5% of it goes to your principal. In other words, you pay $100/month, but your balance only goes down $25. It will take you a whole year to bring your balance down just $300. It will take 16 years and 9 months to pay it off. And don't be hung up on credit ratings - all they do is inform credit companies how likely you are to become enslaved to their usury. Get yourself into a good income:debt ratio - that's really what matters. __________________ If you want to avoid 95% of internet spelling errors: "If your ridiculous pants are too loose, you're definitely going to lose them. Tell your two loser friends over there that they're going to lose theirs, too." It won't hurt your fashion sense, either.