I received a credit card statement and as I went to pay it off, saw the new format required by the Credit CARD Act passed last year. It's a welcome change from all the verbiage used before. Fair warning to those who use credit cards: There's a late payment warning and a minimum payment warning and a calculation that if you make only the minimum payment on the balance it'll take 16 years [!!] to pay it off and end up costing one close to $4,000.00. And paying even a small amount monthly is an improvement, but it stretches the debt out over three years and ends up costing an extra $800 or so more than the money 'borrowed' on credit. I'll be paying it off asap but good to know in real terms the effects of not paying off one's credit card.
One point to make - when you elect electronic billing/statements, unless you scrutinize the statement images you might not get these warnings. So, it's helpful to see it 'live' so to speak, to remember the cost of borrowing on a credit card.
