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A12 BUSINESS
Friday 31 March 2023
In Your Debt: Doing the bare minimum

with debt can cost you

By SARA RATHNER of Nerd-
Wallet When you’re carry-
ing a credit card balance,
paying at least the mini-
mum due each month is
certainly a start. If those
payments aren’t making
your overall budget feel
squeezed, you have all the
more reason to put pay-
ments on autopilot and not
think about the total cost
of your debt. “Our pace
of life has gotten really
busy,” says Delia Fernan-
dez, a certified financial The Visa logo is seen on a credit card in New Orleans, Aug. 11,
2019.
planner and the founder Associated Press
and president of Fernan-
dez Financial Advisory LLC with revolving credit card much interest adds up
in Los Alamitos, California. debt are paying an aver- over time.
“There’s always something age of $1,380 in interest this “If you’re only able to
that’s more important, par- year. There is good news, make minimum payments
ticularly for these people though: Dedicating even a and you’re paying the av-
who are not in a financial small amount of time and erage interest rate, it could
crisis.” But that inertia can money to changing up cost you thousands over
cost you, especially with your payment habits can many, many years if you’re
average credit card inter- be well worth the effort. paying down a balance of
est rates reaching 20.4% CONSIDER THE TOTAL NOT $10,000,” says Bruce Mc-
as of November 2022, ac- MONTHLY COST OF INTER- Clary, senior vice president
cording to the Federal EST of membership and com-
Reserve. NerdWallet’s While the slow drip of in- munications at the Nation-
2022 American Household terest payments might al Foundation for Credit
Credit Card Debt Study, feel manageable month Counseling.
conducted by Harris Poll, to month, thinking of your “It’s stunning how much it
found that U.S. households debt this way ignores how could cost you.”q

Alibaba to split itself into 6 business

groups

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Alibaba
is splitting itself into into six
business groups as the Chi-
nese e-commerce com-
pany attempts to become
more nimble in reacting to
changes in the market and
increase the value of those
units.
Shares of Alibaba Group
Holding Ltd. jumped 8% at
the opening bell.
The logo of Chinese technology firm Alibaba is seen at its office The company said that
in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021.
Associated Press each group will be able to
raise outside capital and
potentially seek its own
initial public offering, ex-
cept for Taobao Tmall Busi-
ness Group, which will stay
wholly-owned by Alibaba
Group. Each group will be
independently managed
by its own CEO and board
of directors. The Cloud In-
telligence Group includes
cloud, q