Payment Calculator
Work out how long a credit card balance takes to clear at a fixed monthly payment, and what the interest costs.
Input Details
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What Payment Calculator does
Credit card debt is unusual in that the borrower chooses the payment, and minimum payments are deliberately set low. Paying the minimum on a substantial balance can take decades and cost more in interest than the original amount.
Enter your balance, rate and intended monthly payment to see the timeline and the total interest — and whether the payment covers the interest at all.
- Balance, annual percentage rate and fixed monthly payment
- Months until the balance is cleared
- Total interest paid
- Warning when the payment cannot cover the monthly interest
How to use Payment Calculator
- 1
Enter your balance and APR
Both appear on your statement.
- 2
Enter the payment you intend to make
Use a fixed amount rather than the minimum, which falls as the balance does.
- 3
Try a higher payment
Increasing the monthly payment has a disproportionate effect, because everything above the interest goes straight against the principal.
Example
What a larger payment is worth
Input
Balance $5,000 at 18% APROutput
Paying $100/month → about 94 months, roughly $4,300 interest
Paying $200/month → about 32 months, roughly $1,300 interestDoubling the payment cuts the time to a third and the interest to under a third, because more of every payment reduces the principal.
Limits and known behaviour
- A fixed payment and a fixed rate are assumed. Real minimum payments shrink as the balance falls, which extends the timeline considerably.
- New spending on the card is not modelled; adding purchases resets the picture.
- Promotional rates, balance transfer fees, annual fees, late fees and penalty rates are not included.
- Interest is calculated monthly rather than by daily balance, which most issuers actually use, so the figures are close but not exact.
- Amounts are calculated and displayed in US dollars using US lending conventions. The arithmetic is currency-independent, so the results hold for another currency if you read the symbol as your own.
- Figures are estimates for comparison and planning. They are not financial advice, not a quote, and not an offer of credit.
Privacy and data handling
Runs entirely in your browser
- Every figure you enter stays in this page. What you type about your debt is not transmitted, logged or stored anywhere.
- There is no account, no saved history and no autosave: reloading the page clears the form.
Site-wide data handling, including analytics and advertising, is described in the privacy policy.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the calculator say my balance will never be paid off?
Because the payment is less than the interest charged each month, so the balance grows despite paying. The payment must exceed the monthly interest before any principal is repaid at all.
Why is paying the minimum so expensive?
Minimum payments are typically set at a small percentage of the balance, so most of each payment covers interest. As the balance falls the minimum falls with it, stretching repayment across many years.