Time to stop wasting money

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One of the cannons of the American way of life is the strange affection for store and brand credit cards.

We have department store cards, gasoline cards (with rewards), catalog company cards. They are handy and they provide us discounts in-store every now and then.

But the APR just isn’t worth it, folks.

I just took a look at the APRs for some of the most common cards people use. Here are their current APRs:

Macy’s – 24.50%

JC Penney – 26.99%

Shell Gas – 24.24%

Old Navy – 24.99%

In my personal world of good savings, and in an age in which the Prime Rate borders on zero, charging 25% APR is not usury, it’s highway robbery.

I know that not everyone can afford to just pay off these cards but please consider transferring these balances to your OAS FCU Visa, be it Classic or Platinum. Both cards have MUCH lower rates than those name brand cards, and they offer a special rate of 2.25% APR on balance transfers for the first 12 months.

Here’s a calculated payment debt of $2,000 for that Macy’s card with the current APR. Check out how much interest you’d pay to pay it off making just the minimum payment! You can make your own calculations on this site. Have you seen the interest? $2,195.53 for a balance of $2,000!

And here are the best of the balance transfer scenario, what you’d save in terms of interest if you moved, say, a $2,000 balance to an OAS FCU cars with the 2.25% special APR and chose to pay it off taking advantage of that one year special rate:

It’s a savings of at least $245 a year on any of those cards. Money that you are literally wasting.

I know it’s a best case scenario, but I think it shows you what a difference a rate can make, right?

If you’re interested in a balance transfer request, here’s the information from the credit union’s website.

If you’re interested in a credit card because you don’t have one yet, here’s the information for Classic, and here for Platinum.