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High Interest cards

Paying Off High-Rate Credit Cards Pays Off
It's not unusual for borrowers to take 20 to 30 years to pay off a mortgage, but imagine making payments that long to pay off a big-screen TV or summer vacation. The television may not last as long as the payments; the tan's gone in a matter of weeks.

Yet long-term credit card bills are reality for cardholders paying only the minimum payment, typically 3% or 4%, on hefty bills.

While a credit card offers you a slew of benefits, don't pay more--or longer--for convenience than you have to.

The fact is, if you're like most credit union member cardholders you do carry a balance from month to month.

Say you have the typical average credit card balance of those members carrying a balance from month to month ($3,000), and figure monthly payments at 3% of the balance with a $25 minimum monthly payment, and without adding any other purchases. It'll take you 11 years to pay off the balance and you'll pay $2,495 in interest charges if you choose a high-rate (18%) bank credit card over [NAME CREDIT UNION'S] credit card.

If you make $100 monthly payments, it'll take you nearly three and one-half years to pay off the $3,000 balance and you'll pay $1,016 in interest charges.

If you make a $257 monthly payment--the average monthly payment of credit union members carrying a balance--you'll make those payments for a little more than one year before paying off the $3,000 balance and it'll cost you $323 in interest charges.

Choosing a lower-rate card, say at 14%, makes a noticeable difference. For the person making minimum monthly payments, as in the first example, the lower rate cuts about one and one-half years off your pay-off time and almost $900 off your interest charges.

So take advantage of all that credit cards have to offer, but don't let issuers with high-rate cards take advantage of you. Get all the perks and the best deal by choosing our low-rate credit card.