minimum payments to credit cards

**sinopa27** · 12-12-2009, 01:09 AM

I put my credit card debt info in one of those calculators and received the following message:

By only making minimum payments it will take 51 more payments or 4.3 years to pay off the remaining balance. Interest will amount to $609.

It's time to get Gazelle Intense!!

**Palooka** · 12-12-2009, 01:22 AM

Straight up! It's hard to look at when it's broken down that way.

**sinopa27** · 12-12-2009, 02:21 AM

You got that right Palooka!!

**frugalfranny** · 12-12-2009, 02:32 AM

Originally Posted by sinopa27

I

It's time to get Gazelle Intense!!

You got the idea sinopa27.......and you have done it before so get going and do it again!

We will be waiting to hear that you have paid off another one!!

**sinopa27** · 12-13-2009, 03:12 AM

FF, just signed up for some overtime cause I am now ready to pay off another cc.

**Kim_Mango** · 12-13-2009, 08:49 AM

Sinopa,
I'm not sure what your strategy is for paying off debt, but let me share with you what I did to accelerate my debt free journey.

Set up your checking account to send WEEKLY partial payments of the minimum balance to each card.

For example, if you have two cards where you owe $100 a month, send $25 a week to each card.

What will this do for you?

Your finance charges will be lower each month because the software calculation the banks use is on your daily average balance. So, if you start sending in partial payments instead of once a month, you'll begin knocking down your finance charges at the same time.

Secondly, choose one card that you will target to pay off. If you decide that you can afford to send an extra $100 on top of the $100 minimum balance, then set up your partial weekly payments to $50 a week to this card.

I now move all my spending cash each month to this prepaid card so that I can better budget my allowance for gasoline, haircuts, food, etc.

I have not mastered this art yet, but it has been a powerful tool to keep me honest about what I'm actually spending since I can track it all online.

I hope these ideas help you!