Estimate payoff time and interest for a credit card balance.
Enter realistic assumptions, run the estimate, then test a higher and lower scenario. Small changes to rates, time, and payments can change the result significantly.
Credit card interest compounds daily in most cases. The daily periodic rate is your APR divided by 365. If your APR is 24%, your daily rate is about 0.066%. This compounds every day on your outstanding balance, which is why carrying a balance from month to month gets expensive quickly.
Credit card issuers calculate the minimum payment as either a flat fee (often $25–$35) or a small percentage of the balance (typically 1–3%), whichever is higher. These minimums are deliberately designed to keep you paying interest for as long as possible. On a $5,000 balance at 24% APR, the minimum payment barely covers the monthly interest — you could be paying for 10+ years and spend nearly as much in interest as the original balance.
Even modest increases above the minimum payment dramatically shorten payoff time. Going from $100 to $150/month on a $3,000 balance at 20% APR cuts the payoff timeline from about 4 years to under 2.5 years and saves hundreds in interest. Use the calculator above to model your exact situation.
If you have multiple credit cards, consider the debt avalanche (highest rate first) or debt snowball (lowest balance first) strategy. The avalanche minimizes total interest; the snowball provides quicker motivational wins.
Balance transfer cards offer 0% introductory APR for a set period (typically 12–21 months). If you can pay off the transferred balance before the promotional period ends, you can save significant interest. Watch for transfer fees (usually 3–5% of the balance) and what rate applies after the intro period.