Grades 9–12Ages 14–18 · Unit 4.2 · The Real Cost of Borrowing
The credit card trap: a free worksheet for high school.
A $4,100 balance at 24.9% APR, and four ways to pay it down. Students compare the minimum payment, $150 a month, $300 a month and a 0% balance transfer, and work out the total cost and the time to zero for each. The minimum-payment column is the one that changes minds.
No account. No email. Nothing collected about your child.
What is on the page
- Four repayment scenarios to work through
- Total interest and months-to-zero for each
- A short written answer on which they would choose and why
- An answer page with all four worked
What it teaches
- How APR turns into real money over time
- Why a minimum payment is designed to be slow
- Comparing options on total cost, not monthly cost
How to run it
Students usually assume the minimum payment is the responsible choice because a bank set it. Letting them discover otherwise from their own arithmetic works far better than telling them.
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Where it comes from
Unit 4.2 · The Real Cost of Borrowing of a 266-lesson curriculum.
This sheet is one activity, unchanged, from Financial Foundations™. Teachers can run a free five-week pilot with one class. Families can take the Family Edition home.