A credit card balance is a monster with a simple diet: it eats interest first. Feed it the minimum and it stays for years.
Kara, 34, Mid-City. The holidays left one card with a $3,000 balance at 24 percent APR, an example rate a shade above the current average for cards that carry a balance. Each month she picks a payment: this card's $90 minimum, or more.
Every month the card charges interest on what Kara still owes. Her payment covers that interest first. Only the leftover shrinks the balance. Your job: find the payment that starves it.
Set the monthly payment, then run the months. The payment stays exactly where you put it, nothing moves unless you move it.
Real card math each month: interest first, the leftover hits the balance.
General education with example numbers, not financial advice.