Credit card payoff calculator

How to use it

Enter each card's balance, its APR and what you pay on it each month. The result is the month you are done, the interest you pay on the way and the total. Move the extra slider to see what more each month would change. Under the minimum payment, set your issuer's formula: the calculator compares your payments with paying only that minimum. Add a card for each one you carry; with several, your payments cover each card and the extra goes to the highest rate first.

What the minimum payment costs

A $5,000 balance at 21.9% shows why the minimum is a trap. On a minimum of 1% of the balance plus the month's interest, at least $25, the first payment is $142.16 and almost all of it is interest. The minimum shrinks as the balance does, so the card takes 18 years 11 monthsto clear and costs $7,925.66 in interest. A fixed payment does the opposite: the interest shrinks while the payment stays, so more of each payment reduces the balance every month.

How the math works

Each month the card is charged a twelfth of its APR on what is owed, rounded to the cent. The payment pays that interest first; what is left reduces the balance. When a payment would be more than what is owed, the last payment is just the balance, and the card is clear that month. If a payment does not cover the month's interest, the balance never falls, and the calculator says so instead of showing a date.

The engine is the one the Tavala app uses for its payoff planner, ported line for line to run in your browser: amounts are kept in whole cents and rounded the way the app rounds them, so the calculator and the app give the same answer for the same card.

Several cards

With more than one card, each card gets its own payment every month and the extra goes to the card with the highest rate. When a card is paid off, its payment keeps going to the next card: the rollover that makes a payoff plan speed up as it goes. Two cards, a travel card of $3,200 at 24.99% paid $90 a month and a store card of $1,100 at 17.99% paid $40, with $50 extra, are clear in 2 years 9 months for $1,514.44 of interest. For loans as well as cards, and for snowball or your own order, use the debt payoff calculator.

Cards in different currencies

If one of your cards is in euros and the other in dollars, set each card's currency and type what one unit is worth in the currency you plan in. The calculator converts the balances and payments before it plans, and plans them as one budget, because the same income pays both. The Tavala app does the same at today's rate, and keeps each card in its own currency on the Money tab.

What it assumes

One rate per card for the whole plan, no new spending on the cards, no fees, and every payment made on time at the end of the month. Your issuer's exact interest will differ a little, because issuers charge daily. The figures are arithmetic, not advice: what to pay is your decision, and for debt you are struggling with, a non-profit credit counsellor in your country can help.