Sorry for the beach picture when summer is clearly over… BUT think of it as motivation for your future goals!

Back to business…

Do you have credit card debt? How much? Do you know the interest (APR) rates on your credit cards? You should! (If you don’t know the answers to these questions, go and look at your credit card statements and find out.)

Basically, you could be doing anything with that money because it would be yours and not the credit card company’s.

What is credit card interest?

Interest is how credit card companies make money off of you as a customer. Interest rates can fluctuate depending on your credit score, your payment history, and the type of credit card (rewards cards tend to have higher interest rates). The whole point of offering a minimum payment is so that you only pay a small amount each month, and then owe more in interest. (If you can pay more than the minimum, even just a little bit, you should.) This article speaks more on why minimum payments are the worst.

How much is credit card interest costing you?

The interest you’ll end up paying depends on the amount of your debt and the interest rate on your cards. If you have a high debt amount and you pay the minimum monthly payment, you’ll end up paying a lot extra in interest over time. Credit Karma has a nifty calculator that helps you figure out how much you’ll actually be paying - you can put in different monthly amounts to see the difference. Aren’t you sick of giving your money away?

What you could be spending that interest on instead:

Basically, you could be doing anything with that money because it would be yours and not the credit card company’s.

The moral of the story is that it sucks to give your money away when you’re getting nothing in return. Yes, you were able to buy something (or many things) with your credit card, but now you’re basically being held hostage by minimum monthly payments and interest accrual.

It’s time to get your debt under control. This may take a long time, but it will be worth it once you’re on your way to financial freedom and no longer under the control of credit card companies. Make a spreadsheet of all your credit cards with the amount you owe, along with the APR rate, and your typical monthly payment. How much are you losing due to interest? Can you afford to pay extra?

If you feel like you need support on your debt journey, maybe I can help you! Schedule a free discovery call with me to find out what I’m all about and why we should work together.