Credit Card Payoff Calculator

How to use the credit card payoff calculator

1. Choose what you want to find out. Pick a fixed monthly payment to see how long payoff takes, a target date to see the payment you need, or the minimum payment to see how slow that route is.
2. Enter your balance and APR. Use the numbers on your latest statement. The APR is the purchase rate, not the cash advance rate.
3. Enter your payment or target. For a fixed payment, type the amount you can pay every month. For a target date, type the number of months.
4. Read the results. You will see the time to pay off, the date you will be debt-free, the total interest and the total cost, plus a comparison with paying only the minimum.
5. Adjust the minimum payment rules (optional). Open Advanced options if your card uses a different percentage or floor than 1% plus interest and $25.

The estimate assumes a fixed APR and no new purchases, fees or balance transfers. Your issuer may calculate interest daily, so your statement can differ slightly.

How credit card interest works

Card issuers charge interest on your unpaid balance. A simple and widely used way to estimate it is to turn the APR into a monthly rate:

Monthly interest = Balance × (APR ÷ 12)

Each payment first covers that month's interest, and only what is left reduces the balance. That is why a small payment on a big balance feels like it does nothing: most of it goes to interest.

How long to pay off a credit card

With a fixed monthly payment, the number of months is:

Months = −ln(1 − Balance × r ÷ Payment) ÷ ln(1 + r), where r is the monthly rate (APR ÷ 12).

This only works if the payment is larger than the first month's interest (Balance × r). Otherwise the balance never goes down.

Worked example

You owe $5,000 at 22% APR and pay $200 a month.

1. Monthly rate = 22% ÷ 12 = 1.833%
2. First month's interest = $5,000 × 1.833% = $91.67, so $108.33 of your first payment reduces the balance.
3. The balance reaches zero after 34 months (2 years 10 months).
4. You pay about $6,750 in total, which is $1,750 of interest.

Pay only the minimum (1% of the balance plus interest, never less than $25) and the same card takes 19 years and 2 months and costs about $8,100 in interest.

The payment needed for a target date

To be debt-free in n months, the payment is:

Payment = Balance × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)^−n)

For the same $5,000 at 22%, paying it off in 24 months needs about $259.40 a month and costs roughly $1,225 in interest.

Why minimum payments are so slow

The minimum shrinks as your balance falls, so the debt drops more slowly each month. Paying a fixed amount, even one that is only a little above the first minimum, keeps the payment steady and finishes the debt far sooner.