What is the Amex Cash Magnet Card minimum payment?

The average monthly credit card bill is a minimum payment of $110.50, based on the average American credit card balance of $5,525 and the average minimum payment percentage of 2%. It would take over 6 years of minimum payments for the average person to pay off their total credit card bill – assuming there are no new purchases – and it would cost roughly $3,017 in interest. That assumes the average APR on all existing credit card accounts: ... read full answer14.54%.

Each person’s monthly credit card bill is determined by a number of factors, such as the interest rate, average daily balance, and billing cycle. Not every credit card issuer calculates interest the same way. However, every credit card issuer is required to state how they calculate interest in the credit card’s terms.

Stats about the average monthly credit card bill:

• Average Minimum Payment Due: $110.50
• Average Individual Credit Card Debt: $5,525
• Average Household Credit Card Debt: $8,006
• Average Annual Percentage Rate: 14.54% (V)

It’s a good idea to pay your monthly credit card bill in full, whenever possible because interest tends to sneak up when balances are carried from month to month. People get in the habit of paying their minimum payment and don’t realize how much of the payment is going to interest. It’s good to note that payments above the minimum for general consumer credit cards must be applied to the principal balance – not interest – by law.

Read your card’s terms to see how the issuer calculates interest. Also, you can look at your monthly statement to see how long it will take to pay off the balance if you only make the minimum payment, and how much you need to pay each month to pay off the balance in three years.

Plus, plugging your own debt values into a credit card payoff calculator will tell you how long it would take to pay off the full balance with different payment amounts, how much interest you’d end up paying in the end, and how much you could save with bigger payments. If you can pay more than the minimum on your credit card debt, you’ll save a lot of money.

The average American credit card debt is $8,701 per household, according to WalletHub’s 2019 Credit Card Debt Study. Americans started 2019 with over $1 trillion in credit card debt. And though we repaid $38.2 billion of that amount by the end of Q1, we added $35.5 billion in new debt by the end of Q2. That’s the largest Q2 buildup, ever, and we continued adding to our tab throughout the rest of the year. In other words, there is reason to be concerned about the average American’s credit card debt.... read full answer

The $8,701 that the average household owes is $498 higher than what WalletHub considers sustainable. That means minimum payments will eventually become too expensive for people with so much credit card debt. That will lead to missed payments and cause charge-off rates to rise. And that in turn will hurt consumers’ credit scores, lenders’ bottom lines and even the economy as a whole.

Average American Credit Card in 2020:

• Average household debt: The average American household owes $8,701 in credit card debt, according to WalletHub.
• Average debt over time: The average American household’s credit card balance has increased by more than 80% since 1990, after adjusting for inflation.
• City with the least sustainable credit card debt: It will take people in Jacksonville, North Carolina roughly 138 months to pay off their median debt of $3,435, and it will cost $4,048 to pay off.
• City with the most sustainable credit card debt: It will take residents of Cupertino, California roughly 12 months to pay off the city’s median credit card debt of $2,408. They will pay an estimated $215 in finance charges in doing so.

You may owe more or less credit card debt than the average American. But it’s important to remember that carrying any credit card balance from month to month will be very expensive, unless you have a 0% introductory APR. The average credit card offer has a 18.61% APR.

Plus, when you carry a credit card balance, it’s hard to determine whether you’re regularly overspending on new purchases. That can easily lead to more debt than you can afford and then missed payments. Both of those bring about credit score damage.

If you’re currently dealing with credit card debt, you’ll want to make sure you pay it off efficiently. That means cutting back on extraneous spending and attacking the balances with the highest interest rates first. You may also want to look into balance transfer credit cards or debt management plans.

No, making just the minimum payment on a credit card does not hurt your credit score, at least not directly. It actually does the opposite. Every time you make at least the minimum credit card payment by the due date, positive information is reported to credit bureaus. Plus, the exact amount you pay doesn’t factor into the payment history portion of your credit score. It’s simply noted that you’ve made a payment on time.... read full answer

What you should know before making just the minimum payment:

• There is a way your credit score could eventually be impacted by only making minimum payments, because it results in a high credit utilization.
• Credit utilization is the percentage of your total available credit that’s being used, or your debt-to-credit ratio.
• If you make a habit of racking up more credit card charges than you can pay for every month, you’ll end up with high utilization.
• Credit-scoring companies see credit utilization over 30% as a negative. To what degree high utilization will affect a credit score depends on your personal credit history and which scoring model is used. But it’s safe to say your debt-to-credit ratio accounts for 20% or more of your credit score.
• If you don’t have much credit history, high utilization will have a greater impact on your score than it would for someone with a diverse and lengthy credit history.

Paying only the minimum amount due on your credit card may seem cheaper in the short term, but you’ll pay for the convenience in interest. Plus, it could reach a point where even the minimum payment is unaffordable. On that note, be advised that credit card payments below the minimum amount due don’t count as on-time payments. And not making the minimum payments can spell real trouble for your credit score.

So, regularly paying only the minimum on a credit card could hurt your credit score in the long run. That’s because it could lead to you spending beyond your needs and racking up more debt than you can afford to repay.