Credit card interest

MagentaYenta

Tue, Nov 07 2017, 11:21 pm

Blessing1 wrote:

What is the normal amount to be paying credit card Interest per month?? We're paying about $190 per month on a Visa card which I think is very much, but my DH thinks it's normal.

$190, interest only??

ETA: Are you running a high principle balance with a high interest rate?

Amarante

Tue, Nov 07 2017, 11:47 pm

Don't know what you mean by normal. What differentiates one card from another is interest rate so a statement of amount paid is meaningless - what is meaningful is whether your interest is as low as you can get as interest rates vary.

Are you paying down your principal each month or just making interest payment. Are you at least paying the interest payment each month so you aren't paying interest ON interest and compounding your debt.

As to what people pay in interest each month, I don't pay any interest at all because I pay off credit cards each month. At one time I didn't pay off credit cards each month and then realized I was paying three times or four times as much for something I had bought because of interest so I stopped buying anything I couldn't afford each month. I also saved to have an emergency fund so that when the inevitable car repair or large dental expense occurred, I used savings instead of having to charge - well technically I charge because I get points but I pay off with savings each month. When I first started out, I was amazed each month at unexpected expenses until I realized that every month there would be an unexpected expense and my budget had to allocate a certain amount for "unexpected expenses".

ETA - When I was paying off my credit cards (and not charging new stuff) and saving emergency funds, I was EXTREMELY frugal. I didn't have Starbucks or buy things on a whim. I only bought whatever produce, meat etc. was on sale and I thought long and hard about even what seemed to be trivial expenses. I remember needing string to tie a cake pan closed for a 3-D cake and I hated paying $2.00 for the string so I "borrowed" some string from a display of flowers :-)

imasoftov

Wed, Nov 08 2017, 6:25 am

Blessing1 wrote:

What is the normal amount to be paying credit card Interest per month?? We're paying about $190 per month on a Visa card which I think is very much, but my DH thinks it's normal.

Ask instead about whether your interest rate is competitive and whether you've got too much credit card debt.

doctorima

Wed, Nov 08 2017, 10:23 am

Normal? It depends on your lifestyle. We B"H pay off our credit cards in full every month and don't pay any interest. If we can't afford it at the end of the month, we don't buy it at the beginning of the month.

As for interest rates, there are cards out there advertising 0% promotions and even no balance transfers. Definitely look into those to see if you can get your interest down as close to nothing as possible, then pay off the balance in full before the end of the promotional no-interest period.