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How much should I pay on this credit card to avoid finance charge?*

I have a discover card and I just put two airline tickets and a hotel room on it, so the statement is 521.00. I know this isn't "that much" but rarely do I ever have more than 200 on a credit card at any time and I always pay it off before the minimum is due. However, I don't have the money to pay off 521 at this moment and I want to avoid a finance charge- Does anyone know if there is a certain percent I should pay? I tried reading the statement but didn't find any numbers... My APR is 7.24% if that helps... Thanks in advance I have left a balance usually 20 dollars or so on this card and I've never incurred interest or fees...

Answers:

1) You have a grace period between the purchase and the due date. If you do not pay the account balance in full by the due date, you will incur interest charges. Typcially, interest is calculated on the average daily balance. If you are not paying the account in full, pay as much and as early as possible to lessen the interest.

2) As long as you pay the minimum payment, you will not receive any late fees. But you have to pay the interest. 7.24% is actually pretty low, about $4 mnthly at that rate and with how much you owe. But keep in mind creditors want you to pay the min, it's how they make money. Your credit score goes up when you just pay the min. So, the slower you pay it off the better in that aspect, but your paying them interest. Your bill they will send you will have the minimum payment required to avoid a late fee. If you don't get your bill in 3 weeks after you made the purchase call them. Your first payment will be do roughly 30 days after you get the bill, so after you make your purchase i'm guessing that your payment wont be do for about 45-60 days, unless you already had a balance in which case you should be making a payment every 30 days, at least 5 days before it's due. And don't miss your min payment, if you do your creditor is likely to automatically jack up your interest rate to the maximum allowed, which is between 19.9% and 29.9%. That's how they screw people, but they don't want you to know that. It's not allways a fixed interest rate, if you break the terms of the contract by not making at least that min payment, then they have the right to break their end of it and jack up to the highest interest rate allowed. It's B.S. so don't get cought in that creditors trap.

3) You would need to pay the entire amount before the end of the grace period to avoid finance charges. Pay as much as you can now and the finance charge will be pretty low oncve you get your bill.

4) You have to pay the statement in full to avoid finance charges. If you charged the tickets after the statement closing date, you have until the next statement closing date to cough up. Timing is everything.

5) Are you kidding me!!!??! 7.24% is ******* incredable. Your credit actually gets better if you dont pay it in full. Break it into 4 or 6 payments instead. 7.24% is a small price to pay to improve your credit. Just always make sure your payment gets to them ON TIME. Its very important if you want to keep that interest rate. Sounds like your using your cards right. Good job!!! Keep it up!!! The reason that you may not have incurred fees on the $20 you usually leave on the card is because you might still be in your introductory period. The 7.24 will kick in when thats over. Again - nice job on the restraint, you should be proud of yourself.

6) Your APR is probably 7.24% over prime, there is no way your APR is only 7.24%, sorry. Even if you pay half, the other half of the $521 will incur interest. Just try and pay off that money in the next 2 months and you should be fine. Dont worry so much if you have no other debt!

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