About Minimum Payments:
By definition, the minimum payment amount on your credit card account is the smallest monetary total that you must send in to the card processing company to avoid defaulting on your account agreement. If you do not send in a payment of at least the smallest designated amount each month, you will probably have to pay an additional late fee. Continued late payments or defaults may also lead to higher interest rates on your account. So, to stay in good standing, it is critical to send in payments of at least the smallest amount required. If you are not sure as to how it impacts your credit history and score, you may want to call your credit card company and ask them specific questions in this regard and also how much total interest you would pay by making only the smallest required payments each month.
• Credit Card Offers – including guaranteed issue accounts
• Credit cards for bad credit – apply online
• No credit credit cards
How Much Money Should You Send In:
So how much should you pay on your credit card account each month? Should you pay the minimum amount, or more? The short answer is to send in as much as you can afford each month, but certainly try to always pay more than minimum amount due. Why is this? Because, when you only send in the lowest amount required each month, you will end up paying a lot more money on the debt than the amount of your original credit card purchases.
At a glance:
- Never make your payments late
- Always pay your total card amount due to avoid paying interest charges
- If you can not pay the whole amount, pay as much as you can to minimize interest charges
Keep in mind, the information presented here is one person’s opinion, and is not to be considered financial advice. If you are concerned about your personal finances, you may want to discuss your questions with your CPA or other finance professional.
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