Credit Card Payoff Calculator

A $5,000 balance at 20% APR paid down at $200 a month takes 33 months and costs about $1,522 in interest. To clear the same balance in exactly 24 months instead, the required payment is $254.48 a month. Interest compounds monthly as balance × (1 + APR/12) minus the payment.

Tip: “Copy with settings” shares a link that opens this calculator with your numbers already filled in.

How this calculator works

Credit cards charge interest monthly on the outstanding balance, so paying only the minimum can keep a balance alive for years while interest quietly compounds. This calculator has two directions: tell it a fixed monthly payment to see how long payoff takes and how much interest that costs, or tell it how many months you want to take and it works out the payment required.

The fixed-payment mode simulates the balance month by month, exactly the way a card issuer applies interest and payments. If the payment does not even cover one month's interest, the balance can never fall — the calculator flags that case directly instead of showing a misleading number of months.

The formulas

Fixed payment (simulated monthly): balance = balance × (1 + APR/12) − payment, repeated until the balance reaches zero

Target payoff time (closed form): required payment = balance × i ÷ (1 − (1 + i)^−n), where i = APR/12 and n = months

Both formulas use the same monthly interest rate. The closed-form annuity formula and the month-by-month simulation are mathematically equivalent — the payment the formula returns pays the balance to exactly zero in the simulation after n months.

Worked example: $5,000 at 20% APR

Fixed payment of $200/month: monthly rate i = 0.20 ÷ 12 = 0.01667.
Simulating month by month, the balance reaches zero after 33 months, having paid about $1,522 in interest.
Target mode instead: to clear $5,000 in exactly 24 months, required payment = 5,000 × 0.01667 ÷ (1 − 1.01667^−24) ≈ $254.48.
That faster payoff costs less in total interest — about $1,107 versus $1,522 — because the balance carries for 9 fewer months.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my balance barely move even though I pay every month?

If the payment only slightly exceeds the interest charged that month, almost the entire payment goes to interest and very little reduces the principal. Interest is recalculated on the new, only-slightly-lower balance the next month.

What happens if my payment doesn't cover the interest?

The balance grows instead of shrinking, because the interest added each month exceeds the payment. This calculator detects that case and reports it directly rather than showing an impossible payoff time.

Is paying the minimum ever a good idea?

Minimum payments are designed to be small, which maximizes the interest the issuer collects over time. Paying more than the minimum whenever possible, or transferring the balance to a lower-rate option, both reduce total interest paid.

Does the APR here mean the same thing as the card's stated rate?

Yes — use the annual percentage rate on your statement. Card issuers apply it as a monthly periodic rate (APR ÷ 12) to the balance, which is exactly what both formulas above do.

Can I use this for more than one credit card at once?

Not directly — this calculator works with one balance and one APR at a time, since both the month-by-month simulation and the target-payoff formula above apply to a single balance and rate. With multiple cards, run each one separately with its own balance, APR and payment, or combine cards that share the exact same APR into one total balance.