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Credit Card Payoff Calculator.
Interest on a card is charged every month on what's left. This shows how long your balance really takes to clear, what it costs, and how much a slightly bigger payment changes both.
Estimates for planning only. Your lender, dealer or tax authority sets the real numbers, and rates, fees and rules change. This is not financial, tax or legal advice. Nothing you type here leaves your browser. Terms.
What a bigger payment does
Same balance and APR; only the payment changes.
Balance month by month
Guide
How to use the Credit Card Payoff Calculator
- Enter your Current balance from the latest statement. If you carry several cards, run each one separately; they have different rates and the order you attack them matters.
- Enter the APR on the card; your statement lists the rate that applies to each type of balance. Use the purchase APR unless most of the balance is a cash advance.
- Choose what to Solve for. How long will a fixed payment take? tells you how long a payment you can afford will take. What payment clears it by a date? tells you what it costs each month to be done by a deadline.
- Fill in the field that goes with your choice: the Monthly payment you will send, or the Months to pay off you are aiming for.
- Note the assumption under the fields: no new purchases and a constant APR. Mean it. Every new charge resets the math.
- Read the headline, then the What a bigger payment does table showing what +$50, +$100 and +$200 a month would change. That table is where the decision usually gets made.
How the math works
A credit card charges interest on your balance every month. The calculator divides the APR by 12 to get a monthly rate and multiplies that by what you owe. Your payment covers that interest first; whatever is left over actually reduces the balance.
Because interest is recalculated on a shrinking balance, every month a little more of the same payment goes to principal. The payoff speeds up as it goes, which is the one bit of good news in this math.
The flip side: if your payment is less than or equal to the month's interest, nothing reaches the principal and the balance never falls. The calculator says so outright rather than inventing a payoff date. Minimum payments on many cards sit only a little above that line, which is why a balance paid at the minimum can take many years to clear.
Payment-by-date mode runs the standard loan formula backward: given the balance, rate and number of months, it finds the level payment that lands the balance on exactly zero.
The formula
Monthly rate r = APR ÷ 12. Interest this month = Balance × r. New balance = Balance + Interest − Payment.
The calculator repeats that each month until the balance reaches zero; the last payment is only whatever is left. Months to pay off (exact) = −ln(1 − r × Balance ÷ Payment) ÷ ln(1 + r), rounded up to whole months.
Payment needed for a target number of months n: Payment = Balance × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)^−n). If Payment is less than or equal to Balance × r, the card never pays off.
Worked example
You owe $6,500 at 24.99% APR and can send $250 a month. The monthly rate is 24.99 ÷ 12 = 2.0825%, or 0.020825 as a decimal.
Month 1: interest is 6,500 × 0.020825 = $135.36. Of your $250, that $135.36 goes to the bank and only $114.64 reduces the balance, which drops to $6,385.36. More than half of the first payment is interest.
Month 2: interest is 6,385.36 × 0.020825 = $132.98, so $117.02 reaches principal and the balance is $6,268.34. The principal share creeps up by about $2.40 a month at first, and by a little more each month after that.
| Month | Interest | To principal | Balance after |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $135.36 | $114.64 | $6,385.36 |
| 2 | $132.98 | $117.02 | $6,268.34 |
| 3 | $130.54 | $119.46 | $6,148.88 |
| 12 | $106.19 | $143.81 | $4,955.32 |
| 24 | $65.84 | $184.16 | $2,977.19 |
| 37 | $9.25 | $240.75 | $203.23 |
| 38 | $4.23 | $203.23 | $0.00 |
The card is paid off in 38 months, with a final payment of $207.47. Total interest is $2,957.47 and total paid is $9,457.47: about $1.45 for every dollar you charged.
Bump the payment to $350 and it is gone in 24 months with $1,804.19 of interest. To be debt-free in exactly 24 months, switch Solve for to What payment clears it by a date?, enter 24 in Months to pay off, and the calculator returns $346.88 a month.
What an extra $50 actually buys
This is the table that matters on the example balance:
| Monthly payment | Months to pay off | Total interest | Interest saved vs. $250 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $250 | 38 | $2,957.47 | — |
| $300 (+$50) | 30 | $2,233.99 | $723.48 |
| $350 (+$100) | 24 | $1,804.19 | $1,153.27 |
| $450 (+$200) | 18 | $1,313.45 | $1,644.02 |
An extra $50 a month, about one restaurant dinner, cuts eight months off the payoff and saves $723.48. The first extra dollars are the most valuable, because they go entirely to principal when the balance is biggest.
Now go the other direction. At $200 a month the payoff takes 55 months and $4,460.65 of interest. At $150 it takes 113 months, more than nine years, and $10,435.52 of interest, more than the original balance.
At $136, barely above the first month's interest, it takes 261 months (almost 22 years) and $28,886.37. At $135.36 or less, it never ends.
Rate matters too, but you control the payment more than the rate. The same $6,500 at $250 a month costs $1,800.20 in interest at 18% and $4,126.91 at 29.99%.
Common mistakes
Paying the minimum and feeling current. The minimum keeps the account in good standing; it does little to pay down the debt. Enter your actual minimum as the Monthly payment and look at the months figure.
Keeping the card in use while paying it down. Charge $100 a month while sending $250 and you are really paying $150, with the payoff to match.
Using the wrong APR. Cash advances and penalty rates run higher than the purchase rate. If the statement shows more than one, run the balance under the higher one to be safe.
Letting the payment shrink. A fixed payment pays off far faster than the declining minimum. Once you pick a number, keep sending it even as the statement asks for less.
Attacking the wrong card. With several cards, the interest savings come from putting every spare dollar on the highest-APR balance while paying minimums on the rest.
If you are weighing a balance-transfer or consolidation loan against the card, run the same balance through the Loan Calculator at the new rate and term and compare total interest. The Amortization Calculator shows that loan's full month-by-month schedule, including extra payments.
What this calculator doesn't do
It applies one monthly rate to the whole balance. Most issuers compute interest daily on the average daily balance, often charge different rates on purchases, cash advances and promotional balances, and may add annual or late fees, so the exact cents will differ. It also assumes you pay on time every month and never add a charge.
Results are estimates. Your card issuer's statement and cardholder agreement govern.
Frequently asked questions
How long will it take to pay off $6,500 in credit card debt?
At 24.99% APR, $250 a month clears it in 38 months with $2,957.47 in interest. $350 a month takes 24 months and $1,804.19; $450 a month takes 18 months and $1,313.45.
How is credit card interest calculated each month?
The card's APR is divided by 12 and applied to the balance. On $6,500 at 24.99%, that is 6,500 × 0.020825, or $135.36 for the first month, which comes out of your payment before any of it reduces the balance.
Why does my balance barely move when I pay the minimum?
Because on many cards the minimum is set only a little above the monthly interest, so most of it goes to the bank. On $6,500 at 24.99%, a $136 payment takes 261 months and costs $28,886.37 in interest, and $135.36 or less never pays it off.
How much do I need to pay to be debt-free in two years?
On $6,500 at 24.99%, $346.88 a month pays it off in exactly 24 months with $1,825.17 in interest. Twelve months takes $617.76 a month; 36 months takes $258.40.
Does paying an extra $50 a month really help?
Yes. Going from $250 to $300 a month on $6,500 at 24.99% cuts the payoff from 38 months to 30 and saves $723.48 in interest. An extra $100 saves $1,153.27 and 14 months.
Should I pay off the highest-interest card first?
For the lowest total interest, yes: put every spare dollar on the highest-APR balance while paying minimums on the others, then roll that payment to the next card. Run each card through the calculator to see how many months the order changes.
Does this calculator work if I keep using the card?
It assumes no new purchases, so any new charge pushes the payoff date out. If you charge $100 a month while paying $250, your real progress matches paying $150 on a frozen balance, which takes 113 months instead of 38.
Estimates for planning only. Your lender, dealer or tax authority sets the real numbers, and rates, fees and rules change. This is not financial, tax or legal advice. Nothing you type here leaves your browser. See the terms of use.
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