Loans & Debt
Credit Card Payoff Calculator
Work out how long a card balance takes to clear and what the interest costs — and what changes if the payment stays the same every month instead of shrinking with the balance.
What it costs to clear
Time to clear the balance
3 years 6 months
42 payments of $200.00 at 18.99%.
What it costs
- Interest 37% of the $6,000 balance, on top of repaying the balance itself.
- $2,201.77
- Balance repaid
- $6,000.00
- Total paid
- $8,201.77
How the payment moves
- First payment
- —
- Last payment
- —
- Number of payments 42 monthly payments of the same amount.
- 42
How long
- Number of payments 42 monthly payments of the same amount.
- 42
Paying $200.00 a month clears $6,000 at 18.99% in 3 years 6 months, at a cost of $2,201.77 in interest — 37% of the $6,000 balance. The total handed over is $8,201.77. This assumes nothing further is charged to the card, which is the assumption that most often fails in practice and the one worth checking before relying on the date.
What the payment decides
The same balance at the same rate, under payments you could choose instead. Every row is this calculator run again on your own figures — nothing here is an illustration. The row that matters most is usually the one that pays the same money every month rather than letting the payment fall.
| Payment | Time to clear | Interest | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $200.00 every month | 3 years 6 months | $2,201.77 | Your plan |
| A shrinking minimum instead (2% of the balance) | 39 years 7 months | $19,248.28 | $17,046.51 more |
| $225.00 a month | 2 years 11 months | $1,855.67 | $346.10 less |
| $300.00 a month | 2 years 1 month | $1,271.19 | $930.58 less |
| $219.91 a month, which clears it in 3 years | 3 years | $1,916.55 | $285.22 less |
The three-year row is not our benchmark. Regulation Z requires your statement to disclose the payment that would clear the balance in 36 months — 12 CFR 1026.7(b)(12) — which makes it the one figure here you can check against a document you already have. Expect it to be close rather than identical: the disclosed figure is allowed a tolerance of 10%, and your issuer compounds daily where this page compounds monthly.
What this calculates
This calculates how long it takes to clear a credit card balance and what the interest costs, month by month, at a rate and payment you specify.
Revolving debt differs from a loan in the one respect that matters here: there is no term. A mortgage has a contracted end date and a payment sized to hit it, so the schedule is fixed at signing. A card has a balance, a rate, and a payment you choose afresh every month — which means the payoff date is not a property of the debt at all. It is a consequence of a decision you re-make thirty or forty times, and the same balance at the same rate can take three years or thirty depending on it.
That is why this page prices the alternatives rather than just producing one schedule. The comparison band shows the same balance under a handful of payments you could plausibly choose instead, including one that is usually worse, so the shape of the trade-off is visible rather than asserted.
How it works
Each month, in order: interest = balance x (APR / 12) payment = fixed amount, or max(balance x minimum%, floor) principal = payment - interest balance = balance - principal Repeat until the balance reaches zero. Where the payment is FIXED, the number of months has a closed form: n = -ln(1 - (balance x i) / P) / ln(1 + i) i = APR / 12 (the monthly rate) P = the monthly payment n = months to clear Where the payment is a PERCENTAGE of the balance there is no closed form, because the payment changes every month. It has to be simulated.
Interest is charged on the balance at a twelfth of the APR, and whatever the payment does not spend on interest comes off the principal. That single sentence is the whole model, and everything else on this page follows from it.
The consequence that surprises people is what happens when the payment is a percentage of the balance. As the balance falls the payment falls with it, so the amount going to principal falls too — and the schedule stretches out precisely because you are making progress.
Follow that to its conclusion and you find something worth knowing about the dollar floor. A payment that is purely a percentage of the balance removes a fixed proportion each month, so in exact arithmetic the balance shrinks towards nothing without ever arriving — like halving a distance forever. In practice money comes in whole cents, so it does terminate, but only after a very long time: at a 2% minimum with no floor at all, a $6,000 balance at 0% interest takes 432 months to clear. Thirty-six years, on a debt costing nothing to carry.
So the floor is not a footnote on the minimum payment. The $25 or $40 an issuer will not bill below is doing most of the work of actually retiring the debt, which is a strange thing to discover about the smallest number on a statement.
The arithmetic also has a hard limit in the other direction. If the percentage is smaller than the monthly interest rate, the payment cannot cover the interest and the balance grows rather than falls. A 2% minimum against a 24% APR is 2% against 2%, and that balance is mathematically unpayable.
Between those two, there is a wide band where the schedule technically works but takes longer than a lifetime, and this calculator stops at sixty years rather than reporting a number no one can act on. Where that band starts depends on the balance and the floor as well as the rate: at a 2% minimum with a $25 floor, a $6,000 balance runs out of road at about 21% APR, while a $40,000 balance does so at about 17%. So a refusal here is usually the model telling you something true about a flat percentage, not an error in what you typed.
A fixed payment has the opposite dynamic. The interest portion falls every month as the balance drops, so the principal portion grows, and the payoff accelerates. This is why freezing the payment at the amount you are already paying — not paying more, the identical sum — is the single largest change available on most card balances.
Extra payments go entirely to principal, which is why a modest addition has an outsized effect. There is no scheduled amortisation to disturb and no prepayment penalty on a revolving account, so a dollar extra removes a dollar of balance and every future month's interest on it.
A worked example
A $6,000 balance at 18.99% APR, paying a 2% minimum that is recalculated each month against the balance left, with a $25 floor.
The first payment is 2% of $6,000, which is $120. Interest for the month is $6,000 x (18.99% / 12), or $94.95. So of that $120, only $25.05 comes off the balance.
That ratio is the whole problem. In month one, 79% of the payment is servicing interest. And because the next payment is 2% of a slightly smaller balance, the payment itself shrinks — to $119.50, then $119.00 — so the amount reaching principal barely moves for years.
Run it to the end and the balance clears in 475 months, which is 39 years 7 months, having cost $19,248.28 in interest. That is 3.2 times the original balance. By then the 2% calculation is long irrelevant — the payments are the $25 floor, and the very last one is $17.31, which is simply whatever was still owed.
Now change one thing, and not the amount of money. Keep paying $120 every month — the same figure the first minimum bills, never reduced — and the balance clears in 8 years 4 months for $5,973.58 of interest. The same opening payment, held steady, saves $13,274.70 and 31 years.
Nothing was paid faster or harder in that second version. The only difference is that the payment did not shrink.
What this assumes
- The APR is fixed for the whole payoff. Most US card rates are variable and move with the prime rate, so a rate change during a long payoff will change the result.
- Nothing further is charged to the card. This is the assumption that most often fails in practice, and it fails silently — a payoff date computed on a balance that keeps growing is not wrong arithmetically, it is answering a different question.
- Interest is calculated on the balance at a twelfth of the APR, once a month. Most US issuers use an average daily balance method with daily compounding, which produces a slightly higher figure than this.
- Payments arrive on time, every month. A late payment can trigger a fee and, on many agreements, a penalty APR — neither of which is modelled.
- The percentage-minimum mode computes the minimum as a flat percentage of the current balance, subject to a floor. This is the textbook model of the minimum-payment trap and it is NOT the formula in major US cardmember agreements — see the limitations below.
- There is no grace period in the model: interest accrues from month one. A balance paid in full every month is not what this page computes, and on such an account no interest is charged at all.
What it does not model
- The shrinking-minimum mode does not describe your issuer's formula. Every major US cardmember agreement we read sets the minimum as the greatest of several amounts, one of which adds the billed interest and fees to a percentage of the principal, with a dollar floor in the mix — a structure that always repays the balance, unlike a flat percentage on its own. The details differ enough between issuers that the same balance produces different minimums at each, and some use tiered percentages rather than one rate. Use the fixed-payment mode with the figure from your statement if you want your own schedule.
- One rate only. A real card can carry a purchase APR, a cash-advance APR and one or more promotional rates at the same time, and payments above the minimum are allocated to the highest-rate balance first. This models a single balance at a single rate.
- No fees. Annual fees, late fees, over-limit fees, cash-advance fees and foreign transaction fees are all excluded, and each one lengthens a real payoff.
- No promotional or deferred-interest periods. A 0% introductory rate, and the deferred-interest structure common in store financing where the whole accrued balance becomes payable if the balance is not cleared in time, are both outside this model.
- No balance transfers. A transfer fee is typically a percentage of the amount moved, and whether a transfer helps depends on that fee, the promotional length and the rate afterwards — none of which this page asks for.
- Average daily balance and daily compounding are not modelled. Real interest is usually slightly higher than the monthly figure here for the same nominal APR.
- This is arithmetic, not advice. It does not know your income, your other debts or which balance to clear first, and it has no view on whether paying a card down is the right use of the money.
Questions
Is there a federal rule that sets the minimum payment?
No — and this surprises people, because the minimum feels like the kind of thing that would be regulated to a formula. What federal law actually governs is disclosure and supervision, not the calculation. Regulation Z requires your statement to show what paying only the minimum will cost you and what it would take to clear the balance in 36 months. Separately, the banking agencies issued interagency guidance in 2003 stating that they expect lenders to require minimum payments that amortise the current balance over a reasonable period, and that prolonged negative amortisation raises safety-and-soundness concerns. That is a supervisory expectation applied by examiners, not a rule prescribing a percentage, and it is the reason nearly every agreement now includes a term that covers the interest plus some principal. Within that, the issuer chooses the formula, and the ones we read all chose differently.
What does my own card actually use?
A "greatest of" calculation, almost certainly — but the specific version is in your cardmember agreement and it is worth looking up, because the differences are real. Reading six current agreements: Chase takes the larger of $40 or the sum of 1% of the balance plus billed interest and late fees. Bank of America adds 1% of the balance to new interest and any late fee, rounds that total down to the dollar, and will not go below $35. U.S. Bank takes the greater of $40 or 1% as a base, then adds interest and fees on top of that floored figure. Wells Fargo takes the greater of $25 or 1% plus interest and fees, and rounds up. Discover's prime agreement makes $35 one of three competing prongs and rounds up to the dollar. American Express is the most involved: alongside a $40 prong and a flat 2% prong, it computes a tiered percentage of the balance net of interest — 1% of the first $20,000, rising in brackets above that — and then adds the interest back. Same intent, five different answers on the same balance, which is exactly why this page does not pretend to reproduce any of them.
Why does the three-year figure on my statement differ from this page?
Because the two are computed under different rules, and a gap is expected rather than a sign that one is broken. Regulation Z requires the disclosed 36-month payment to follow the method in Appendix M1, and that appendix explicitly allows the disclosed figure to be up to 10 percent above or below what the method produces; the minimum-payment repayment estimate gets a tolerance of two months. On top of that, your issuer almost certainly computes interest on an average daily balance with daily compounding, while this page applies a twelfth of the APR to the balance once a month — which makes real interest slightly higher for the same nominal rate. So use the statement figure as the authoritative one for your account, and treat this page as the tool for asking what happens if you pay something different.
Does paying extra actually go to the balance I want it to?
Within one card, the answer is set by regulation rather than by preference. 12 CFR 1026.53 requires a card issuer to allocate any amount you pay above the required minimum first to the balance with the highest annual percentage rate, then to the remaining balances in descending order of rate. So if your card carries a purchase balance at one rate and a cash-advance balance at a higher one, your extra payment attacks the cash advance whether or not that was your intention — which is generally what you would want anyway. Two exceptions sit in the same rule: during the last two billing cycles of a deferred-interest promotion the excess goes to the deferred-interest balance instead, and a secured balance can be targeted at your request. Note the scope: this governs how one issuer splits your payment between balances on one account, and says nothing about which of several cards to pay first.
Is the minimum payment ever a reasonable thing to pay?
Yes, in circumstances this calculator cannot see, and it is worth saying so plainly because the figures above are alarming enough to imply otherwise. Paying the minimum protects your payment history, which matters more to your credit than the balance does, and it is the right call when the alternative is missing a payment somewhere else, draining the cash you would need for an emergency, or skipping an employer retirement match. What the numbers above establish is narrower and still useful: the minimum is expensive in a way that is easy to underestimate, and the cost of paying it is not spread evenly — it compounds against you for as long as the balance lives. Whether that cost is worth bearing this month is a judgement about your whole situation, and this page has no view on it.
What is a typical credit card interest rate?
The Federal Reserve publishes this in its G.19 Consumer Credit release, and two different figures get quoted from it. For the second quarter of 2026, the average rate across all credit card accounts was 20.94%, while the average across accounts actually assessed interest was 22.15%. The second is the more relevant number if you carry a balance, because the first is diluted by accounts that are paid in full each month and pay no interest at all. Both are averages across the whole market and neither predicts your rate — your own APR is on your statement, it may be several rates on one card, and if it is variable it moves with the prime rate. Use your own figure in the calculator; the averages are only useful for knowing roughly where you sit.
Sources
- 12 CFR § 1026.7 — Periodic statement (paragraph (b)(12), Repayment disclosures) (opens in a new tab)
The requirement that a credit card statement disclose the cost of paying only the minimum and the estimated monthly payment that would repay the balance in 36 months, at paragraph (b)(12)(i)(F)(1)(i). This is the basis for the three-year benchmark row on this page. Note that paragraph (b)(11) is "Due date; late payment costs" and is a different requirement entirely.
- Appendix M1 to 12 CFR Part 1026 — Repayment disclosures (opens in a new tab)
The prescribed method behind the statement disclosures, and its tolerances: a minimum-payment repayment estimate is accurate within two months either way (paragraph (b)(5)), and the 36-month payment within 10 percent either way (paragraph (d)(4)). Those tolerances are why a statement figure and this page can legitimately differ.
- Appendix M2 to 12 CFR Part 1026 — Sample calculations (opens in a new tab)
The Bureau's own worked illustration, which assumes a minimum payment formula of "2 percent of the outstanding balance or $20, whichever is greater" on a $1,000 balance. Cited to show that the flat-percentage model this calculator can compute is a recognised illustrative convention — and nothing more than that. It is an example inside a disclosure appendix, not a mandated formula.
- 12 CFR § 1026.53 — Allocation of payments (opens in a new tab)
The requirement that amounts paid above the required minimum be allocated first to the balance with the highest annual percentage rate and then in descending rate order, with the paragraph (b) exceptions for deferred-interest balances near the end of a promotional period and for secured balances at the consumer's request. It governs allocation between balances within one account.
- 15 U.S.C. § 1637 — Truth in Lending Act, open-end credit disclosures (opens in a new tab)
The statutory basis for the minimum-payment disclosures, at subsection (b)(11). Worth distinguishing from the regulation: the statute requires the 36-month payment and the total cost of paying over 36 months, but does not itself require the savings comparison that appears on statements. That comparison is a Regulation Z addition, not a statutory mandate.
- Federal Reserve Board — G.19 Consumer Credit release (8 September 2026) (opens in a new tab)
Average credit card interest rates: 20.94% across all accounts and 22.15% across accounts assessed interest, both for the second quarter of 2026. The distinction matters — the all-accounts figure is diluted by accounts paid in full each month. These are market averages and establish nothing about any individual rate.
- Federal Reserve SR 03-1 — Account Management and Loss Allowance Methodology for Credit Card Lending (supervisory guidance, 8 January 2003) (opens in a new tab)
The interagency supervisory guidance in which the banking agencies state they expect lenders to require minimum payments that amortise the balance over a reasonable period, and that prolonged negative amortisation raises safety-and-soundness concerns. This is GUIDANCE applied through examination, not a regulation, and it sets no percentage — but it is the reason nearly every modern agreement includes a term covering interest plus principal.
- FDIC FIL-2-2003 — Credit Card Lending: Account Management and Loss Allowance Guidance (text of the interagency guidance) (opens in a new tab)
The readable text of the same 2003 interagency guidance, containing the operative sentence: "The Agencies expect lenders to require minimum payments that will amortize the current balance over a reasonable period." Cited because the Federal Reserve's own copy of the attachment is a scanned image. Still guidance, not a rule.
- JPMorgan Chase — cardmember agreement, minimum payment clause (June 2026) (opens in a new tab)
Chase's minimum as past-due amounts plus the larger of $40 or the sum of 1% of the new balance plus billed periodic interest and late fees. One of six agreements read to establish that issuers use a greatest-of structure with an interest-bearing term rather than a flat percentage.
- American Express — Gold Card cardmember agreement, minimum payment clause (as of 30 June 2026) (opens in a new tab)
The most structurally involved of the agreements read: the highest of $40, 2% of the balance, or a tiered calculation that takes 1% of the balance net of interest up to $20,000 and rising percentages in brackets above that, then adds the billed interest back. Cited specifically because it shows a flat percentage existing as one branch inside the formula rather than as an alternative to it.
- Bank of America — Customized Cash Rewards agreement, minimum payment clause (30 June 2026) (opens in a new tab)
A minimum built as 1% of the new balance plus new interest plus any late fee, with that sum rounded DOWN to the dollar and floored at $35. Cited alongside the others to show that the floor's placement and the rounding direction differ between issuers, which is why this page does not reproduce any single formula.
- U.S. Bank — cardmember agreement, minimum payment clause (effective 30 June 2026) (opens in a new tab)
A "base minimum payment" of the greater of $40 or 1% of the balance, with interest charges and fees added on top of that floored base and the total rounded up. A materially different construction from Bank of America's despite similar components.
- Wells Fargo — Active Cash card agreement, minimum payment clause (June 2026) (opens in a new tab)
A minimum of past-due amounts plus the greater of (1% of the new balance plus billed interest and certain fees) or $25, rounded UP to the next whole dollar. Cited from the issuer's own current page rather than the database copy, which is an outdated capture.
- Discover — Prime cardmember agreement, minimum payment clause (30 June 2026) (opens in a new tab)
A minimum of any past-due amount plus the greatest of $35, 2% of the new balance, or $20 plus interest charges and certain fees, rounded up to the nearest dollar. Notable because the dollar figure here competes as one prong rather than acting as a floor beneath the others.
- Formula reviewed
- Formula version
- 1
Version 1 means the formula has not changed since this page was published. If it changes, this number moves and the change is described here.