minimum payment

this is my credit card bill from wachovia this month.  apparently a new law has gone into effect that requires them to explain exactly what this whole "minimum payment" thing and "interest" thing means.  i thought people knew that when you use a credit card and don't pay off the full balance each month, you pay interest on your balance, thus increasing the amount you owe.  apparently everyone wasn't really getting that.  i should have guessed.

what i didn't realize, though (so i'm glad this new law is in effect) is this line: "if you make no additional charges this month, and each month you pay only the minimum payment, you will pay off the balance on this statement in about 19 years."  19 YEARS??  are you kidding me?  i knew that not paying off the full amount each month increased the amount you had to pay, but i didn't realize that someone could be making payments on this bill for almost 20 years.  i think this is a sign that we need to raise the mandatory minimum payment, because this seems ridiculous to me.

note: i always pay off my credit card balance each month because i know that credit cards get people into trouble and, thus, credit cards are scary.  however, this new information on my bill has scared me even more, and while this bill isn't due until april 10th, i will totally be paying it TODAY.  whoever passed a law saying that credit card companies had to spell things out in plain english should be rewarded somehow.  maybe with a cookie.

(do you like how i changed my tune WITHIN THIS POST?  i guess the bottom line is: i think this law is necessary and important for america even if it doesn't change my behavior too much.  the end.)

(click the picture to zoom in.)