When will my credit card be paid off?
Works in both directions: how long a payment takes to clear a balance, and what payment clears it by a date you choose.
On a card this is usually around 20%, and on a cash advance higher.
Paid off in
2 years, 9 months
and the interest comes to $1,521, which is $6,521 paid in total.
- Months
- 33
- Interest
- $1,521
- Total paid
- $6,521
- First month's interest
- $83.29
Both directions of the same question
"How long will this take at $200 a month" and "what do I have to pay to be rid of it by next summer" are the same arithmetic run in opposite directions, and they are asked by the same person about the same card. Both are here.
Why the minimum payment takes so long
A card's minimum is usually a percentage of the balance with a small floor, so it falls as the balance falls. That is what makes minimum-payment payoff take years rather than months: the payment shrinks in step with the debt, and the tail drags on. Paying a fixed amount, even the same amount the minimum starts at, clears the balance far faster.
The percentage and the floor are set by each issuer rather than by any rule, so this calculator does not assume one. Your statement carries both.
At card rates, the interest is the point
A $5,000 balance at 19.99% costs about $83 in interest in the first month alone. A $100 payment against it clears $17 of debt. That is why a card balance can feel immovable while you are paying it every month, and why the gap between paying $100 and paying $200 is so much larger than double.
If you carry balances on several cards, the debt payoff calculator shows what paying more than the minimum on one of them is worth.
What this assumes
- The purchase rate, not a cash advance rate
- Cash advances usually carry a higher rate and, unlike purchases, start accruing interest immediately with no grace period.
- A fixed payment every month
- Rather than the declining minimum an issuer bills. That is deliberate, because a fixed payment is what actually clears a card.
- No new spending on the card
- Which is the assumption that most often fails in practice.