Credit Card Payoff Calculator

How long will it take to pay off my credit card?

At a fixed payment, as many months as it takes for the payments to cover the balance plus each month’s interest. A $4,860 balance at 24.99% APR paid at $200 a month is cleared in 35 months (2 years 11 months) and costs $1,984.37 of interest. The calculator works through one card balance month by month and handles the two follow-up questions most people have: what paying only the card’s minimum would cost, and what monthly payment clears the card by a deadline. If you are paying down several cards at once, a debt snowball or avalanche calculator handles the order between them.

How to use the calculator

• Payment plan: Fixed when you know what you will pay each month, Minimum to follow the card’s minimum formula down as the balance falls, or Deadline to find the payment that clears the card in a number of months.
• Card balance: the new balance on your latest statement, for example 4,860 or 4.86k.
• APR: the purchase APR, as a yearly percentage. Your statement lists each APR on the account with the balance it applies to.
• Monthly payment (Fixed) or Months to pay it off (Deadline). Under the payment, a line shows how month 1 splits it between interest and the balance, and warns when it doesn’t even cover the interest.
• First payment date (optional): turns month numbers into calendar months and gives the month of the last payment.
• Your card’s minimum payment: the formula from your card agreement, as either the interest plus a percentage of the balance or a percentage alone, with the lowest minimum the card allows. It sets the minimum-only plan shown next to every result, so replace the example’s “interest + 1%, at least $35” with your card’s terms.

The Try buttons load the cases below. Save for comparison holds up to three results next to each other, for example your payment and $50 more.

Worked example: $4,860 at 24.99% APR, $200 a month

1. Monthly rate: 24.99% ÷ 12 = 2.0825%, or 0.020825.
2. Month 1 interest: $4,860 × 0.020825 = $101.2095, rounded to $101.21.
3. Month 1 payment: $200 − $101.21 = $98.79 goes to the balance, which falls to $4,761.21.
4. Each month repeats on the new balance. Interest shrinks as the balance does: $1,068.85 in year 1, $695.31 in year 2 and $220.21 in the 11 months of year 3.
5. Payment 35 only needs to be $44.37. In all you pay $6,844.37, of which $1,984.37 is interest.

The same card under the three other plans the result shows:

Paying $200 instead of the minimum saves $6,548.23 of interest and 165 months. Another $50 a month ($250) finishes in 26 months with $1,434.56 of interest, $549.81 less than at $200.

The payoff time formula

Without rounding, paying a fixed amount $P$ against a balance $B$ with a monthly rate $r$ takes $n$ payments:

$$n = -\frac{\ln(1 - rB/P)}{\ln(1 + r)}$$

• $r$ is the APR ÷ 12 as a decimal (0.020825 for 24.99%).
• $rB$ is the first month’s interest, so the formula only has an answer when $P$ is larger than it.

For the example:

$$n = \frac{-\ln(1 - 0.020825 \times 4860 / 200)}{\ln 1.020825} = 34.22$$

That is 34 full payments and a smaller 35th. The calculator itself goes month by month with every interest charge rounded to the cent, as a statement does, and the formula is shown as a check. In a spreadsheet, =NPER(24.99%/12, -200, 4860) gives the same 34.22.

How much do I need to pay each month to be debt-free by a date?

The level payment that clears the balance in $n$ months:

$$P = \frac{rB}{1 - (1 + r)^{-n}}$$

For 24 months on the example card:

$$P = \frac{101.2095}{1 - 1.020825^{-24}} = 259.3612$$

The calculator rounds up to whole cents, $259.37, so 24 payments are always enough (the 24th is $259.11), for $1,364.62 of interest. Rounding down to $259.36 would leave a few cents for a 25th payment. The Debt-free in 12 months button gives $461.90 a month and $682.68 of interest. The table under the result lists the payment for 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48 and 60 months. In a spreadsheet, =PMT(24.99%/12, 24, -4860) returns the unrounded $259.36.

What happens if you only pay the minimum?

The minimum falls as the balance falls, so the balance never shrinks faster than the formula allows. On the example card, the first minimum is $101.21 of interest plus 1% of $4,860 ($48.60), or $149.81. That repays about 1% of the balance a month, and the minimum shrinks with it until month 146, when the formula gives $34.89 and the $35 floor takes over. Paying only the minimum takes 200 months (16 years 8 months) and $8,532.60 of interest, more than the balance itself.

Keeping the payment at the first minimum instead ($149.81 every month) finishes in 55 months and saves $5,209.95 of interest. That comparison is the “First minimum, every month” figure in the result.

Card statements print a version of this result. Regulation Z requires a minimum payment warning with the payoff time at the minimum (in whole years once it is 2 years or more), the total cost, and the monthly amount that would clear the balance within 36 months. For the example card that box would read about 17 years and $13,393 at the minimum, against $193 a month and $6,955 in all to finish in 3 years, a saving of $6,438. With Minimum chosen, the result rounds its own figures the same way, so you can hold them against your statement.

How credit card minimum payments are calculated

Each card agreement sets its own formula, usually one of two kinds, with a dollar floor, and the whole balance is due once it is below the floor:

• Interest plus a percentage of the balance, for example the interest + 1%. The interest part only covers the month’s interest, so each month repays the percentage whatever the APR. At interest + 2% the example card takes 121 months and $4,522.31 of interest instead of 200 months.
• A percentage of the balance alone, for example 3%, or Regulation Z’s own illustration, 2% or $20, whichever is greater. Only the part above the monthly rate repays anything. At 24.99%, 3% repays about 0.92% a month, so the Minimum of 3% of the balance button shows 213 months and $9,228.14 of interest. When the percentage is no more than the monthly rate (2% of the balance at 26.24% APR, where a month’s interest is 2.19%), the minimum never pays the card off.

The floor matters at the end: once the formula drops below it, you pay the floor until the card is clear. The schedule’s Minimum set by column shows which rule applied each month, and the what-if table under a minimum-only result tries other percentages.

How credit card interest is calculated

Many issuers charge a daily periodic rate, the APR ÷ 360 or ÷ 365, on the average daily balance, and the daily interest compounds. The calculator uses the simpler monthly version that Regulation Z allows for statement estimates: the APR ÷ 12 on the balance after the previous payment, rounded to the cent. The difference is small. Charged monthly, 24.99% works out to 28.06% a year; charged daily at APR ÷ 365, 28.38%. Paying earlier in the billing cycle lowers the average daily balance, and with it a statement’s interest.

When a payment never pays off the balance

When the payment is no more than a month’s interest. On the example card, the $100 a month button pays less than the $101.21 of interest, so the balance ends month 1 at $4,861.21 and never falls. Instead of an error or an endless schedule, the result says Never and gives:

• the month’s interest and the smallest payment that lowers the balance, $101.22;
• how long even that takes: 449 months (37 years 5 months) and $40,491.99 of interest;
• the payment that clears the card in 36 months, $193.21.

A minimum formula can land here too, and statements carry a matching warning when minimum payments would never pay off the balance. A payment just above the interest does finish, but slowly: the result warns when a plan takes more than 30 years, and a plan still unpaid after 1,200 months (100 years) is reported as such, with the smallest payment that finishes within 100 years.

Reading the result

• The headline is the payoff time, or for a deadline the monthly payment needed, with the payments spelled out: how many at the full amount and what the last one is.
• The three plans put your plan next to minimum payments only and the 36-month payment, each with its months, interest and total paid. With Minimum chosen, the second plan holds the first minimum every month.
• The statement box (with Minimum chosen) rounds the minimum-only result and the 3-year payment the way a statement’s minimum payment warning does.
• How this was calculated repeats month 1 with your numbers, the formula check and a spreadsheet formula.
• Balance owed, month by month charts those plans; Chart data has the numbers.
• Payment schedule gives every month (payment, interest, the part that reduced the balance, balance after) and a year-by-year summary, each with a CSV download.
• The what-if table answers each mode’s follow-up question: months and interest at other payments, the payment for other deadlines, or the minimum-only time at other percentages.
• Continue in carries this card to a debt snowball or avalanche calculator as its first debt, or to a loan payment calculator to price a consolidation loan (replace the card’s APR with the loan’s rate there).

Assumptions and limitations

The results are educational estimates for one card, not financial advice, and they rest on these simplifications:

• One balance at one APR. A card with a cash-advance or promotional balance charges each part its own rate, and anything paid above the minimum goes to the highest-rate part first. Enter the purchase balance and APR for the main picture.
• The card is not used again. No purchases, fees or rate changes are added, and a penalty, variable or promotional rate is not modeled.
• Monthly interest, so a daily-rate statement will differ by a little.
• Payments at the end of each month, none missed. A payment below the minimum or a late one can bring late fees and a higher rate; the result warns when your plan’s first payment is below the formula’s minimum.

Common mistakes

• Treating today’s minimum as a plan. A fixed $149.81 finishes the example card in 55 months, but minimum payments that follow the formula take 200. Minimum follows the formula; Fixed holds an amount.
• Entering the daily periodic rate as the APR. A statement may show both. The daily rate (for example 0.0685%) is the APR ÷ 365; the APR field wants the yearly figure.
• Using a 0% introductory APR for the whole payoff. The promotion ends, and the regular APR applies to whatever is left. Use Deadline with the promotional months to see what clearing it in time takes.
• Typing the APR as a decimal. 0.2499 in a percent field means 0.2499%, not 24.99%; the field points this out.