Credit Card Payoff Calculator

The minimum-payment trap, in plain numbers

Credit card companies print a "minimum payment" on every statement for a reason — and it isn't your benefit. At typical rates north of 20%, a minimum payment barely covers the interest, so the balance shrinks at an agonizing crawl. A $6,000 balance paid at a small minimum can take well over a decade to clear and cost more in interest than the original debt. The first thing this calculator does is show you the first-month interest charge, which is the toll you pay just for carrying the balance one more month. Seeing that number in dollars tends to light a fire under people.

The math behind a credit card is unforgiving because interest compounds on what you still owe. Each month you're charged interest on the remaining balance, that interest gets added to the balance, and next month you pay interest on the interest. The only way to win is to pay meaningfully more than the interest accruing, so that real principal disappears every cycle. That's why the size of your monthly payment matters far more than people expect — and why even a modest extra payment has an outsized effect. Try bumping the extra payment field up by $50 or $100 and watch the payoff time and total interest both drop sharply.

If your rate is crushing you, a few moves can change the game: a 0% balance-transfer offer can pause interest for 12–21 months so every dollar attacks principal, a personal loan can swap a 24% card for a single-digit fixed rate, and simply calling to ask for a lower APR works more often than you'd think. Whatever route you choose, the principle is the same — get more of your payment hitting principal. This calculator is the proof of how much that's worth. It assumes a fixed payment each month rather than a declining minimum, which is exactly the disciplined approach that gets cards paid off.