Credit Card Payoff Calculator
Three ways to attack a card balance: enter your monthly payment to see how long payoff takes and what it costs in interest, set a target date and get the payment that hits it, or test whether a 0% balance-transfer offer actually beats staying put once the fee is counted.
Payoff plan
Example: $5,000 at 20% APR, $150/mo → debt-free in 4 yr 2 mo.
Fixed payments beat sliding minimums
The worked example — a $5,000 balance at 20% APR with a fixed $150 payment — clears in 4 yr 2 mo at a cost of $2,359 in interest. Want out in two years instead? The target-date mode shows $254.48 a month does it. Both figures come from the same tested engine as the calculator. The lesson generalizes: because interest accrues on the balance, every dollar above the interest charge is what actually shrinks the debt — fixed payments concentrate those dollars, sliding minimums starve them.
If you hold several cards
Pay minimums on everything, then put every spare dollar on the highest-APR card (the "avalanche" — mathematically optimal), or on the smallest balance (the "snowball" — faster visible wins). Both work; the avalanche saves more interest, the snowball is easier to stick to. When a consolidation loan's fee-adjusted APR beats your cards, compare totals with the Personal Loan Calculator.
Balance transfers: the fee decides
Move a $6,000 balance off a 22% card onto a 0%-for-15-months offer with a 3% fee ($180) and an 18% APR afterwards, keep paying $250 a month, and the card clears in 2 yr 2 mo at a total cost of $397 (fee plus $217 of post-intro interest) — against $1,979 of interest for staying put. That is $1,582 saved. But the fee cuts both ways: transfer a $2,000 balance at 15% APR while paying $400 a month, and the 5% fee costs $100 to avoid just $79 of interest — the transfer loses $21, because the balance clears fast either way. Both cases come from the same tested engine as the calculator; the transfer mode above runs your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Why do minimum payments take decades?
Card minimums are typically set near 1–3% of the balance — barely above the monthly interest — so almost nothing reduces principal, and as the balance shrinks the minimum shrinks with it, stretching payoff for decades. A fixed payment (rather than the sliding minimum) breaks that pattern.
Does this account for new purchases?
No — it models a frozen balance being paid down. New spending on the card extends everything. The standard advice while paying down a card is to move day-to-day spending elsewhere so the balance only moves in one direction.
How is credit-card interest actually charged?
Cards typically accrue interest daily on your average balance, which compounds slightly faster than the monthly model used here — this calculator (like most) uses monthly compounding at APR ÷ 12, which lands within a few percent of the daily-accrual total over a full payoff.
What is the fastest way out of card debt?
Pay a fixed amount well above the minimum; put any extra on the highest-APR card first (avalanche); and consider a 0% balance-transfer offer or a consolidation loan if the math beats your current APR after fees — compare with the Personal Loan Calculator.
When is a balance transfer not worth it?
When the one-time fee exceeds the interest you would avoid — typical with small balances or payments large enough to clear the card quickly either way. The transfer mode above shows both totals side by side, so the fee can never hide: if "staying" costs less, the calculator says so plainly.
How does the transfer math work?
The fee (a percent of the amount moved) is added to the transferred balance, the 0% intro months accrue no interest, and any balance left when the intro ends accrues at the post-intro APR ÷ 12 monthly. The same fixed payment is applied on both paths so the comparison is apples to apples.
Not financial advice: a general educational estimate using monthly compounding; card issuers typically accrue daily, which differs slightly. Values are processed locally in your browser and never transmitted. See the methodology page.