Credit Card Payoff Calculator
Enter your balance, the APR and what you can pay each month. This shows how long the card takes to clear and what the interest costs — set against what would happen if you paid only the minimum instead.
Clear in
34months
- Time to clear
- 2 years 10 months
- Total interest
- $1,749.88
- Total repaid
- $6,749.88
- Minimum only — time
- 68 years 1 month
- Minimum only — interest
- $35,957.75
- Paying only the minimum would take 68 years 1 month and cost $34,207.87 more in interest.
- Assumes a fixed payment, no new spending on the card, and the rate holding. Adding to the balance while paying it down resets most of this.
About the credit card payoff calculator
Credit cards are unusual among debts because the payment is not fixed. The minimum falls as the balance falls, which sounds helpful and is the single most expensive feature of the product. Paying a flat amount every month instead — even the same amount as today's minimum — clears the card dramatically faster.
The comparison is stark. A $5,000 balance at 22% APR cleared at $200 a month takes under three years and costs around $1,500 in interest. The same balance paying only a 2% minimum takes over twenty years and costs more in interest than the original balance. Same card, same rate, same starting point.
There is also a threshold worth knowing about. If your payment is smaller than the monthly interest, the balance grows no matter how long you keep paying. This tells you when that is happening rather than quietly returning a nonsense number.
What it works out
- Months to clear at a fixed payment
- Total interest and total repaid
- The same balance paying only the minimum
- A warning when the payment never clears the debt
The formula
Each month: interest = balance × APR ÷ 12, then balance = balance + interest − payment
There is no neat closed formula here, because the useful version of this question is answered by simulation: apply a month of interest, subtract the payment, repeat until the balance reaches zero, and count the months.
That is also how the card itself works. Interest is charged on what you owe, so every payment that reduces the balance reduces next month's interest too. Paying a fixed amount rather than a falling minimum keeps that effect compounding in your favour.
The minimum payment works against you for exactly the same reason in reverse. As the balance drops, so does the minimum, so the amount going against the principal shrinks month after month. The debt develops a very long tail, and the interest accrued along it is where the cost comes from.
One threshold matters more than any of this. If the payment is less than the monthly interest, the balance rises regardless of how long you keep paying. At 22% APR a $5,000 balance accrues about $92 a month, so anything at or below that never clears it.
- Balance
- What you currently owe on the card.
- APR
- The annual purchase rate, divided by twelve to get the monthly rate.
- Payment
- A fixed amount paid every month, not a percentage.
- Minimum
- The percentage of the balance your card requires, used only for the comparison.
A worked example
Five thousand on a card at 22% APR, paying two hundred a month.
That works out to 34 months.
- Time to clear
- 2 years 10 months
- Total interest
- $1,749.88
- Total repaid
- $6,749.88
- Minimum only — time
- 68 years 1 month
- Minimum only — interest
- $35,957.75
Questions
How long to pay off $5,000 at $200 a month?
About 33 months at 22% APR, costing roughly $1,500 in interest. Raising the payment to $300 clears it in 20 months and cuts the interest to about $900.
What happens if I only pay the minimum?
On a $5,000 balance at 22% with a 2% minimum, it takes over twenty years and costs more in interest than the original balance. The minimum falls as the balance falls, so progress slows to almost nothing near the end.
Why does my balance keep going up even though I pay every month?
Because your payment is smaller than the interest being charged. At 22% APR, $5,000 accrues about $92 a month, so anything under that leaves the balance higher than it started. You have to clear the monthly interest before any payment touches the debt.
Should I pay a fixed amount or the minimum?
Fixed, always — even if you set it at today's minimum and never change it. The damage from a minimum payment comes from it shrinking as the balance does. Holding it flat is the single easiest way to clear a card years earlier at no extra cost in the first month.
Does this account for new spending on the card?
No, and that matters. It assumes you stop adding to the balance. Continuing to spend on a card you are paying down resets most of the progress, which is why people often advise moving spending off the card entirely while clearing it.
What about a 0% balance transfer?
Set the APR to zero to see how fast the balance clears with no interest, but include the transfer fee in the balance — it is usually 2 to 4% and is charged up front. Also check what the rate reverts to and whether you will have cleared it by then.