Chase Slate Tracker: NEVER pay minimums.
Paying down debt is one of my most important goals, primarily because of high-interest rates. I don’t have as much debt as many other Americans, but I do have enough to stress me out. I’m going to do case studies on my own debt, and I’ll call these “trackers” so you can follow along.
This is my Chase Slate card, a basic no-thrills, no-frills, no-real-benefits card.
We’ll focus on that card for this post.
I have $6058.00 as of right now. The minimum payment currently is $161.00. My verified interest rate is 20.24% Yikes!
Look at the difference in calculating the minimum payment compared to 2 different fixed payments.
Minimum payments are the worst
Most calculators out there know that you really don’t want to pay minimum payments because they keep you as a slave to the credit companies for years. But Bankrate has one, you can find it in this link and it’s what I used for the calculation below.
I only owe $6058, but I will pay $6,058 + $9,486.92 for a total of $15544.92
Payment: Minimum
Total Paid: $15,544.92
Time: 296 months (24 years and 8 months)
That’s just insane. This means I would end up paying 156.59% extra compared to the original amount owed.
Even though the Bankrate calculator also can do fixed payment calculations, I like the one from Wallethub because it shows you a quick-view comparison for various payment options with the intent on encouraging you to save more money; you can find that credit card calculator here.
Fixed payments are better. Let’s Calculate $250.00 per month
If I pay $250 each month, my estimated total payoff is going to be $6058 + $1817 in interest, and it’s going to take me until February 2026 to pay it all off.
Total: $7875
Time: 32 months (2 years, 8 months)
That’s still crazy: in this case, I will pay approximately 29.99% extra compared to the original amount owed.
But notice on the next section, how adding just a little more, raising from $250 to $350 per month cuts down the time to pay off by one full year to around 21 months!
fixed payments for $350.00
Let’s take a look in more detail and see how much interest I save if I pay $350 instead of $250.00.
By making monthly payments of $350, me 21 months to pay off this credit card balance of $6,058. My total interest cost will be $1,179. For a total of $7237.
Payment: $350.00
Total Paid: $7237
Time: 21 months (1 year and 9 months)
In Conclusion
Making fixed payments is undoubtedly better than making just the minimum payment. But even at $350, it’s not ideal because it will still take a long time. But way better than paying minimums!
Ideally, I would pay it in 3 payments and be done, but that means they would have to be $2000 payments and it would be really difficult at this time with my current income.
I’m going to budget for $250 as the fixed payment because that allows me to build my next 3 months of savings while still making a dent into this card; as my budget allows it, I will make extra payments.
Next is Paypal, another Chase card, and my American Express.