Credit Card Payoff Calculator
This credit card payoff calculator estimates how many months it takes to clear a balance, plus the total interest paid, based on your current balance, APR, and monthly payment. Enter those three numbers and the tool runs a month-by-month payoff simulation so you can see whether your current payment actually gets you to zero, and how much interest that path costs.
Quick answer
Higher monthly payments shorten the payoff timeline and cut total interest.
What this tells you
- •Higher monthly payments shorten the payoff timeline and cut total interest.
- •If the payment does not exceed the first month's interest charge, the balance never reaches zero and the calculator flags it as unpayable at that amount.
- •APR is converted to a monthly rate (APR divided by 12) and applied to the remaining balance each month before the payment is subtracted.
- •Two cards with the same balance and APR can have very different total interest costs depending on payment size alone.
- •A 0% promotional APR still needs a real payoff plan, since interest can jump sharply once the promo period ends.
How to Use
- 1Enter the current card balance you want to pay off.
- 2Enter the card's annual percentage rate (APR), found on your statement or card agreement.
- 3Enter the fixed monthly payment you plan to make toward this balance.
- 4Calculate to see months to payoff, years to payoff, total interest, and total amount paid.
How It Works
Formula
Each month: interest = balance x (APR / 12), balance = balance + interest - payment, repeated until balance reaches zero.The calculator simulates the balance one month at a time instead of using a single closed-form equation, because that mirrors how card issuers actually apply interest. Each cycle, it multiplies the current balance by the monthly rate (APR divided by 12) to get that month's interest charge, adds the interest to the balance, then subtracts the fixed payment. It repeats this until the balance hits zero or 100 years pass, at which point it reports the balance as not payable at that amount. Total interest is the running sum of every month's interest charge, and total paid is the original balance plus that total interest.
Calculation note: values are processed in the order shown above, using the current input units.
Worked Examples
Pay off $5,000 at 18% APR
A $200 monthly payment clears this balance in just under 3 years. Interest adds roughly 26% on top of the original $5,000, which shows how much a mid-teens APR compounds over a multi-year payoff.
Pay off $8,000 at 22% APR
At a higher APR, interest grows to nearly 39% of the original balance even with a payment well above the minimum. This is a common outcome for store cards and cards with penalty APRs.
Pay off $2,500 at 24.99% APR
A near-25% APR is common for cards issued to people rebuilding credit. Interest here adds more than 42% to the original balance, which is why increasing the payment even slightly makes a large difference at this rate.
Pay off $10,000 at 19.99% APR
Doubling the payment relative to the $5,000 example above roughly halves the payoff time even though the balance is twice as large. Payment size, not balance alone, drives how fast debt clears.
Pay off $1,500 at 0% promotional APR
During a 0% introductory period, every dollar of the payment reduces the balance directly, so the payoff is a straightforward division of balance by payment. The catch is that the APR entered here needs to reflect the rate that applies once the promotional window ends.
Common mistakes
- Entering a payment below or too close to the first month's interest charge, which stalls the balance instead of reducing it.
- Ignoring new purchases added to the same card, which the calculator does not account for since it assumes a fixed starting balance.
- Assuming APR compounds only once a year, when most cards apply interest monthly, which is what this tool models.
- Forgetting that a 0% promotional rate is temporary, and not re-running the calculation with the post-promo APR to see the real payoff cost.
- Comparing payoff time across cards without also comparing total interest, since a longer timeline at a lower rate can still cost less overall.
Limitations
This payoff model assumes a fixed monthly payment, a constant APR, and no new purchases, balance transfers, or fees added during the payoff period. It does not account for promotional rate expirations, penalty APRs triggered by late payments, minimum payment requirements set by the issuer, or annual fees. Real card statements may compute interest using daily periodic rates and average daily balances, which can produce slightly different totals than this monthly simulation.
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