Credit card interest question (I'm math-dumb)

Well, there's something to consider:

14.99% of $13,500 is $2025 supposed interest.
Monthly, that's $168.75.
Wiggle in a few bucks for compounding interest, and it's not really all that far off.

 

Yep, perfectly normal. Credit cards make tons of money off people like you.

I pay no more than $20 in interest a month, but then again, I only owe a grand.

 

Yeah that happened to me. call them up and negotiate your rate down. If they don't tell them that you'll switch cards.

 

You've better turn that into a lower interest rate bank loan instead. That sum is too big to allow an interest rate like that. 15% interest is pretty normal to my understanding and doesn't mean many dollars per month on smaller credits, but on $13000, you end up with much higher sums.

Otherwise, even better would be to get rid of as much as possible of that credit. Is there perhaps something you can sell? Can you live with a cheapass car for a year, for instance? That could perhaps be a solution, unless you have a loan for a car as well.

 

+1... even if you can get yours down a few points, you could be looking at $40-50 a month saved on interest, which you could put towards your principle instead.

 

I'm one of those people. It's killing me.

 

That's what I mean. And I'm starting to do the same. I was just laid off, and have a semester left of school, just got a new car, and am paying off a motorcycle.

I'm charging groceries right now, trying to find a part time job to pay for my living expenses, but I can't afford anything extraneous. I'm having a hard time coming up with the scratch to pay for an extra class to graduate on time.

No offense intended.

 

Just miss a payment and see where the set the rate! Most cards have a 'small print' rate of closer to 30%

I know there's talk of passing law to prevent this default hike but not sure if it's been put in place yet.

 

Yeah...I had a card do that once, on a balance of about $4000. Went from 6.9% to 26.9% overnight...

Needless to say, I ate ramen until I paid that one off asap. And bitched them out, of course.

 

you're not alone buddy, I've been there. I pretty much took Deacon's approach - I took out a small loan with much lower interest and applied that towards the card, it didn't pay it completely off but got in under control. That, and then I also sold off a bunch of basses and such and ended up finally closing the card out. Once I closed the card out, I took the money that I would have been paying for the card and paid off the bank loan. It worked swimmingly and I be no jean-yus..

 

memo to self: hold off on a credit card for as long as humanly possible

 

I wouldn't. My credit card has saved my ass more than a few times.

I wouldn't be eating right now if it weren't for my credit card.

 

hence my "as long as possible" thing

I know I'll probably need one in the future

But I'd rather have to not worry about having a CC 'til I'm a bit older/smarter/more mature with money so I know not to use unless needed (FWIW I think grad school's a good reason)