Mint - Question on min payment and interest rates

thecornflake

I have a Mint credit card which is on payment only, so no activity on it at all except the minimum payments each month (yes I know!).

It is (was?) on a low interest rate for a balance transfer (although there is a small purchase amount on there at a higher rate) and was actually going down quite quickly. Checking the last statement it seems a grand total of 1p (yes one whole penny) has gone from the actual balance from the last payment.

Here are the details, also perhaps someone could tell me what the APR is for these rates as I don't know how to work it out (is it just the monthly rate * 12?).

I'm not sure what rate to enter into the snowball calculator, especially as there are 3 different rates???

Balance from previous statement - £3775.79
Direct Debit payment - £84
Interest - £4.42
Interest - £0.86
Interest - £58.71
New Balance - £3775.78

Summary of balances

BALANCE MONTHLY RATE OUTSTANDING BALANCE

Purchases 1.667% £261.37
Cash 2.075% £40.86
Transfer & Save 1.667% £3453.55

CLAPTON

the formula is.. using for eaxmple the 1.667% rate for purchases

(((1+0.01667)power12) - 1) x 100

but multiplying by 13 is a good approximation.

However it started its now very expensive debt as

1.667% works out at 21.94% APR
2.075% works out at 27.94% APR

Milarky

The APR is given by taking the monthly rate and multiplying it by itself 12 times. Thus:

APR = (1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)x(1.01667)

= 1.21943

Then convert back to a percentage again by subtracting '1' and multiplying the result by '100'

i.e. (1.21943 - 1) x 100% = 21.9%

The cash rate APR is 27.9% by the way...

[But knowing that doesn't help or change anything does it?]

m00m00

your balance transfer is now being charged at the same rate as your purchases, which is why your account is barely going down after making the minimum payments each month, it will effectively take forever to clear if you continue only making min payments on this card now.

YorkshireBoy

thecornflake wrote: »

Checking the last statement it seems a grand total of 1p (yes one whole penny) has gone from the actual balance from the last payment.

I think you've made a typo.

Your new balance is £3755.78, meaning you've paid off £20.01

Still pretty bad, but not as bad as you first thought.

thecornflake

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I think you've made a typo.

Your new balance is £3755.78, meaning you've paid off £20.01

Still pretty bad, but not as bad as you first thought.

I think they've made a typo, it definitley lists 3775.78, but after checking it everything adds up to 3755.78. I'll call them and check it's just a printed mistake!

Thanks for the help on the rates guys, I've just applied for a BT card to move my Egg balance onto, but it looks like this one might take priority now!