Miles, cashback, reward points, sign up bonuses; there are dozens of credit cards that offer rewards to entice you to use them. Rewards can be a nice feature of a credit card but if you aren’t able to pay your card in full every month, only one thing matters above everything else - your interest rate.
To illustrate this, let’s look at what’s in Jon’s wallet. He has 3 credit cards right now; each has a $2,500 balance he’s carrying from month to month. He has a good credit score (720) and he wants to pay off these cards by putting $100 per month toward each of them.
We are going to assume that Jon doesn’t put any additional charges on these cards while he is paying them off. Here's a breakdown of how long it will take for him to pay them off and how much interest he will pay. The annual fees are included in these calculations.
|
Credit Card |
Months to Pay off Card with $100 Monthly Payments. |
Total Interest Repaid |
Total Amount Repaid $2,500 Principal + Interest |
|
Big bank rewards card, 19.99% APR, $95 annual fee |
37 months |
$827 |
$3327 |
|
Celebrity endorsed miles Card, 20.99% APR, $95 annual fee |
37 months |
$892 |
$3392 |
|
Canopy Credit Union rewards card 9.90% APR, no annual fee |
29 months |
$302 |
$2802 |
Jon should ask himself - are those rewards really worth it? In order to have them, he paid over $500 more in interest on each of his other cards compared to his credit union card. Not only does his Canopy card save him money, but he also earns rewards for using it!
If you carry a balance on your card from month to month, take a second look at your interest rate and see if using your Canopy credit card is a better deal. You may also want to do a balance transfer onto your Canopy card to save money. Take the next step and talk with one of our loan advocates today by calling 509.328.2900.
Curious with how we came up with our numbers? Run them yourself using our handy credit card calculators and the Interest.com interest calculator.
