The Price For Paying the Minimum

y father passed along a link to this table, illustrating a basic rule of credit finance that the vast majority of Americans likely fail to understand: the banks are trying to screw you. Here, they do so by lowering your minimum payment, naturally neglecting to inform you of the price of paying the minimum:

$5,000 balance on a credit card with an 18% annual rate.
	Minimum payment, based on 2% of balance	Minimum payment, based on 4% of the balance
1st month's payment	$100	$200
Time to pay off	553 months, or 46.08 years	150 months, or 12.5 years
Interest owed	$13,931.13	$2,915.66