Credit Card Payoff Calculator

This calculator turns a card balance and a monthly payment into the two numbers your statement never shows plainly: how many months until you're free, and how much interest the journey costs. Card interest compounds against you monthly, so small changes in the payment produce outsized changes in both.

Its most useful feature is the comparison: add an extra monthly amount and it shows the interest and months you save versus the regular payment alone. Seeing "an extra $100 saves four figures and years" is usually more motivating than any budgeting advice.

The simulation runs your balance month by month. Each month, interest accrues at one-twelfth of your APR on the remaining balance; your payment covers that interest first, and whatever remains reduces the balance. The loop repeats until the balance hits zero, counting months and accumulating interest as it goes.

Each month: interest = balance × (APR ÷ 12), then balance = balance − (payment − interest). The payment is treated as a fixed dollar amount every month — unlike a card issuer's percentage-based minimum, which shrinks as your balance falls and stretches payoff dramatically.

If your payment doesn't even cover the first month's interest, the balance can never fall; the calculator says so directly and shows the monthly interest floor you'd need to beat, instead of displaying a meaningless number. The monthly convention (APR ÷ 12) closely tracks the average-daily-balance method issuers actually bill with, and no new purchases on the card are assumed.

A payoff horizon under about two years is a strong position — the interest total stays modest relative to the balance, and the end is visible. Three to five years is where card interest starts rivaling the balance itself; that's the zone where adding even a small extra payment, or moving the balance to a lower rate, pays off most dramatically.

If the calculator warns that your payment never clears the balance — or the horizon runs past five years — treat it as a structural problem, not a willpower problem. Options worth pricing: a balance-transfer card with a 0% window, or a fixed-rate personal loan at a fraction of card APR, which converts an open-ended revolving debt into a defined end date. Our debt payoff calculator compares strategies across multiple cards.