Minimum Payment, Maximum Pain !

If you have any friends or loved ones (especially those who are just beginning to tiptoe around that bog called “consumer credit”), duct tape them in front of the computer and force them to read this post until they can restate the concept back to you with their eyes closed.  You’ll be doing them a favor.

Imagine this!  As of January 2013, the average credit card debt held by only those American families that carry such debt, is $15,422.00 per household.  YIKES !!  Overall, Americans owe 858 BILLION dollars to credit card companies, not counting the additional fees that will surely accrue from blunders such as late payments.  And neither of these astounding figures includes other types of daunting debt, such as mortgages and/or student loans. 

The chart to which I added my red emphases (above), was included in my monthly American Express statement.  Why it was there would be conjecture, since I never thought of them as a good-hearted, consumer-compassionate corporation whose goal was to make less money.  No matter, what the chart displays is exactly what I remember nagging my girls about when they began getting their first credit card statements back-in-the-day.  And my abbreviated message now, as it was then, remains simple:  “Focusing on only the “minimum payment” figure of your credit card statement, will sooner or later get you in VERY BIG TROUBLE !”

So, if you have someone who needs some schooling on the evils of credit card mismanagement, provide them with the graphic proof.  Hopefully, a picture can be worth a thousand words.  But if the chart doesn’t happen to work, think of it this way.  Your only investment, other than emotionally, was the couple of yards of duct tape that bound them to the chair initially, plus the six inches more you’ll need later on to cover your mouth when you feel the urge to scream, “I TOLD YOU SO !!!”