Minimum Increases

Remember the old adage, what goesup must come down? Well, when itcomes to the minimum monthly paymenton your credit card bills, the law of gravityno longer applies. But that might notbe a bad thing, depending on how youlook at it. Prompted by guidelines set upin 2003 by federal bank regulators, creditcard companies have begun raisingtheir minimum monthly payments. Themove, however, isn't an attempt by creditlenders to speed up the payment process.Consumer's best interest: Tight competitionwithin the industry motivated companiesto lower their minimum monthlypayments; although a smaller bill looksgood on paper, lower payments havemade it difficult for some cardholders topay down their balance. If you haven'treceived notification from your creditcard company about the hike, you canalways give them a call or stop byCardweb.com to check out the latestnews on your plastic provider.