However, if you only make the minimum payment on your credit cards, it will take you much longer to pay off your balances — sometimes by a factor of several years — and your credit card issuers will continue to charge you interest until your balance is paid in full.
If you only pay the minimum due on your credit card, the remaining balance may accrue interest and increase your credit utilization, which could negatively affect your credit scores and make it harder to get out of debt.
So, chances are you can speed up the payoff process significantly by making fixed payments. In the example above, if your credit card company calculates payments as 1% of your balance plus interest, your minimum payment on $10,000 in credit card debt would be about $300.
You will not be offered any interest-free credit period if you have paid only the Minimum Amount Due (MAD) and not the credit card outstanding in full. Rather, you will be charged an interest amount from the date of purchase. The interest amount will also keep accumulating till you settle the dues.
How much is 26.99 APR on $3,000? An APR of 26.99% on a $3,000 balance would cost $67.26 in monthly interest charges.
1% of the balance plus interest: You would pay off $5,000 in 285 months. That means it would take nearly 24 years to eliminate your $5,000 balance if you only make minimum payments. During that time, you'll pay a total of $9,332.25 in interest for a total payoff cost of $14,332.25.
Use the debt snowball method
In order to use this method, list all of your credit card debts from lowest balance to highest balance. Now start concentrating on wiping out the credit card with the lowest balance while still making the minimum payments on the other cards. The point of this strategy is to build momentum.
If you choose to pay your Outstanding Balance in full on or before the Payment Due Date, no finance charge will be imposed. However, if you choose to pay only the Minimum Payment or any amount less than the Outstanding Balance on or before the Payment Due Date, you will be treated as borrower or a “revolver”.
Over time, only paying the minimum balance can negatively affect your credit score as the balance you carry affects your credit utilization ratio, which accounts for about 30% of your score.
In CR's survey, the most common reason people said they were late with a payment was that they thought they'd already paid the bill (27 percent). For 12 percent, one of the problems was that they didn't know when the payment was due.
If you can afford to pay off your debt during the promotional APR period, a balance transfer card may be your best bet. For example, with $5,000 of debt, a six-month intro APR balance transfer card would allow you to pay off your debt interest-free with $833.33/month payments.
"When you pay only the minimum amount due, you can avoid late payment charges, but the remaining unpaid balance starts attracting finance charges, which can go up to 42% p.a. Moreover, when there is unpaid balance in your account, all new purchases become ineligible for the interest-free period, which means they will ...
Percentage method: Some credit card issuers calculate the minimum payment as a percentage of your outstanding balance. This percentage typically falls within the range of 1% to 3% but can vary. For example, if your outstanding balance is $500 and the minimum payment percentage is 2%, your minimum payment would be $10.
Generally, an APR below 21% is relatively low. Anything over 24% is more expensive. If you pay off your credit card balance in full every month, the APR won't be as important as you won't be paying interest. But if you forget and the APR is high, the interest charges will quickly rack up.
Credit card minimum payments are usually calculated based on the monthly statement balance. The minimum payment could be a percentage of the balance, plus new interest charges and late fees. Or it could be a flat percentage of the entire balance. And in some cases, the minimum payment could include past-due amounts.
Paying off your monthly statement balances in full each month is the path to avoiding credit card debt. As long as you pay off your statement balance in full before the due date, you can continue making purchases on your credit card without paying interest until the next statement due date.