Credit Card Payoff Calculator
See how long it will take to pay off a credit card, how much interest you will pay, and what payment clears it by your target date.
Results
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Quick Answer
Each month, interest is added to your balance and your payment is taken off. A $5,000 balance at 20% APR with $200 monthly payments takes 33 months to clear, and costs about $1,522 in interest. Paying more each month cuts both the time and the interest.
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Table of Contents
How This Credit Card Payoff Calculator Works
This calculator repeats what happens on your card each month: it adds interest at one-twelfth of your APR, then takes off your payment. It counts the months until the balance reaches zero, and adds up the interest.
Quick explanation: monthly interest = balance × APR ÷ 12.
- Payment: must be more than the monthly interest, or the debt never falls.
- Target months: shows the payment needed to finish by then.
- New charges: not included, so stop adding to the card for this result to hold.
Core Formulas
- Monthly rate: r = APR ÷ 12
- Each month: new balance = balance × (1 + r) − payment
- Payment for a target: P = B × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r) ^ −n)
B is the balance and n is the number of months.
Worked Example
You owe $12,000 at 24.99% APR and pay $400 a month.
- First month interest = 12,000 × 24.99% ÷ 12 = $249.90
- Only $150.10 of your first payment reduces the balance
- It takes 48 months to clear, with about $7,023 in interest
Ways to Pay It Off Faster
- Pay more than the minimum: extra payments go straight to the balance.
- Stop new charges: new spending pushes the payoff date back.
- Plan several cards: try our Debt Snowball or Debt Avalanche calculators.
- Check balance transfer costs: compare any fee with the interest you would save.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on your balance, APR and payment. Enter them above to see the number of months and the total interest.
Issuers usually use a daily rate on your balance. This calculator uses a monthly estimate of APR ÷ 12, which is close for planning.
Early payments go mostly to interest. Paying more than the minimum puts more toward the balance.
Your balance stays the same. The calculator shows a message if your payment does not cover the monthly interest.
That usually saves the most interest. Our Debt Avalanche Calculator shows how this works across several cards.
References & Sources
| Source | Used For | Link |
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| Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Credit cards | How card interest and payments work. | https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/credit-cards/ |
| Wikipedia, Amortization calculator | Fixed payment formula. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amortization_calculator |