Reader Question: My credit balance is $3,000.00. What will happen if I only make minimum payments each month?

A credit card minimum payment is usually about 1.5% to 2.5% of your balance. That’s a very small amount. Since I don’t know your interest rate, I’ll do calculations based on a 12% interest rate. In your case, that would be about $45 per month.

If you are paying the minimum payment it will take you a really long time to pay off your credit card in full – at $45 per month it will take you 411 months or 36 years. This is assuming that you will not be making any additional charges.

Credit card lenders make their money from the interest they charge you. Your objective is to pay as little interest as possible. When you pay your credit card balance in full each month you save yourself a considerable amount of money.