How much do you pay in interest charges each month?

Hello-

When was the last time you really looked at your monthly credit card statement?  Do you know how much your balance is going down each month or is it even going down at all?

When you have over $50,000 in credit card, I imagine I am paying a ton in interest charges that I shouldn’t.  But what choice do I have?

Is bankruptcy really a choice?

There is debt settlement and debt negotiation but then I would not be able to use my cards anymore and my credit would get all screwed up just as much as if I did file bankruptcy.  But I digress.

The amount of money you pay in interest charges can get crazy.

You need to be aware of how much of your payments go to interest and how much go to lower your balance.  No one knows the value of compound interest as much as your credit card company.

They get to make interest off of the interest they are charging you when you fail to pay the balance each month.

And this just goes on and on for months and months and months until it becomes years and years and years.

Sigh.

That’s hundreds and thousands of dollars each year just basically washed down the drain that you’ll never see again.

How to minimize your interest charges?  Call your credit card company and ask, demand, plead, etc for a lower rate.  Check your credit report and see how many on time payments you have made in the past four years and point that out to your bank.

Show them how good of a customer you have been and ask them and then ask them again and then ask them even one more time to help you out and lower your APR.

My mom just told me about a $39 late fee she got charged on one of her statements because she didn’t get a bill when she switched over to paperless billing.  I told here to call them and have them waive that thing.  It was already 2 months later that I fould out about this.  I said it didn’t matter, you are a good customer and they should waive that fee.

She called and they didn’t hassle her at all and waived the late fee.

$39 saved and it took less than 5 minutes.

That’s the equivalent of earning $468 an hour!

When was the last time you made $468 an hour?  Make the calls and get the rates down.  There’s no need to pay the credit card company any more fees or high interest rates than they are already getting.

Now here’s the sick part that I didn’t want to see.  How much I am paying each month in interest charges.

Discover: $35 on $2345 balance.

Chase: $155 on $15121 balance.

Bank of America: $172 on $17176 balance.

ATT Universal Card: $120 on $11106 balance.

USAA: $104 on $9984 balance.

Total interest charges each month: Approx $586! #@#%#%!$@#%^&&*&*!

That’s a really nice car payment right there.

That’s also a decent sized mortgage payment right there.

How the hell did I ever get into this mess…

-Adam