Facts About Debt and Minimum Payments

Have you wondered how long and how much you will pay if you continue making minimum payments? Here's a look...



Using credit and only paying the minimum amount due, you will be in debt for the next 30-plus years. These calculations were made using our Debt Calculator.

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study says that out of every 100 Americans born 65 years ago...

• 25 are dead
• 20 have incomes under $6,000
• 51 have incomes of $6,000 to $35,000
• 4 have incomes over $35,000

Where do you want to be?

65% of America's households are only 3 paychecks away from financial crisis

The U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve report that (non-mortgage) consumer debt has increased from $8500 to $14,500 per household

According to the Federal Reserve, outstanding non-secured consumer debt rose to 1.65 trillion in 2001, up from $711 billion in 1993.

The average American household has between 7 and 10 credit cards (up from 4.2 in 1999) and pays more than $1600 per year in interest

More than 50 million households carry credit card debt with an average balance of $8000, up from $3000 in 1990

Today, 40% of credit card households say they have "great difficulty" making their payments.

Eight times as many Americans are going bankrupt today than during the Depression.

Nearly half of all Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

The number of young people filing for bankruptcy increased by 50% in the past ten years.

The percentage of 33-35 year-olds who are more than 60 days late on credit card payments jumped by more than 30% from 1992-1998; for 45-54 the jump was almost two-thirds.

Consumer Action, a nonprofit organization that surveys credit card issuers each year, found earlier this year that 69% of card issuers raise the interest rate — to as high as 29.99% in some cases — after just one late payment.