In Chapter 5, a $1,200 credit card balance at 24.99% APR is paid off at just $35 a month. It takes 61 months — and the card company collects $925.71 in interest on top of the $1,200. Run the numbers yourself below, then try paying a little more and watch the trap shrink.
Drag a slider or type a number — everything updates instantly.
Found on your statement as “APR.” Store cards often sit near 30%.
In the Chapter 5 example this is the $35 minimum, paid every month until the balance is gone.
Paying $35 a month, every month, no new charges.
Your balance each month. Early on, most of your payment is eaten by interest, so the balance barely moves — that slow start is the trap.
Same card, same balance — only the monthly payment changes.
| Monthly payment | Debt-free in | Interest paid | You save |
|---|
Month 1 is the whole story: most of the $35 never touches what you owe.
| Month | Interest | Payment | Balance left |
|---|
Each month, interest is charged on what you still owe: interest = balance × (APR ÷ 12). Your payment first covers that month’s interest; only what’s left lowers your balance. No new purchases, fees, or late charges are added — life is messier than this page, which is exactly why the real trap is usually worse.
The payment here is a fixed dollar amount each month, the way the Chapter 5 example tells it. Many real cards instead set the minimum as a small percentage of your balance, so the minimum shrinks as you pay — which stretches the payoff out even longer. Either way, the lesson is the same: the minimum is designed to keep you paying, not to get you free.