Money in One Chart

where money goes

The minimum payment is designed to keep you paying for nineteen years.

Americans carry $1.3 trillion in revolving credit. On a $5,000 balance at today's average rate, the minimum payment stretches the debt across most of your working life.

You asked for the payoff calculator. It is below, as the slides from the post, then the one move, then the tool the chart points at.

Slide 1 of 7: The minimum payment is designed to keep you paying for nineteen years.Slide 2 of 7: This is how much revolving credit Americans carried in June 2026, most of it on cards.Slide 3 of 7: The same $5,000 balance costs very different amounts depending on how you pay it.Slide 4 of 7: Under that minimum-payment formula, the balance takes about this long to clear.Slide 5 of 7: If you already pay more than the minimum, the trap is still there, and it is the shrinking payment.Slide 6 of 7: One change in the card's autopay settings.Slide 7 of 7: Save this for the statement that arrives this week.

One change in the card's autopay settings.

  1. 01
    Turn off pay-the-minimum autopay and set a fixed amount instead.The setting is usually under payments or autopay.
  2. 02
    Pick a number that hurts a little.On $5,000, $250 a month is about two years.
  3. 03
    Do not lower it as the balance drops.That is the whole trick.

The tool this chart points at

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Sources: Federal Reserve G.19 Consumer Credit; Arithmetic on the G.19 rate; Arithmetic.

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