Credit Card Payoff Calculator

What formula does this tool use?

This tool uses a fixed monthly payment and a monthly rate of APR ÷ 12. Each month the interest on the open balance is added, then your payment is taken off. The payoff length follows n = −ln(1 − r × B ÷ P) ÷ ln(1 + r), and the tool then steps through the months one by one so the totals use a real, smaller final payment rather than a fraction of a month.

What happens if my payment is lower than the monthly interest?

The tool shows a warning instead of a payoff time, because the balance would never fall. The break-even figure is balance × APR ÷ 12, which is $83.33 on a $5,000 balance at 20%. A payment of $80 gets the warning; $83.34 is accepted but takes 571 months and about $42,563.75 in interest. A payment of 0 gets its own message.

How does a 0% APR work here?

With a 0% rate there is no interest, so the result is simply balance ÷ payment, rounded up to whole months, with a smaller last payment. A $5,000 balance at $150 a month takes 34 months, and the 34th payment is $50.00. The tool applies one rate for the whole payoff; it cannot model a promotional 0% period that later reverts to a higher rate.

Why is the final payment smaller than the others?

Unless the balance divides exactly into your payment, the last month only needs what is left. On $5,000 at 20% with $150 a month, 49 full payments are followed by a final payment of $9.09, which is why the total paid is $7,359.09 rather than 50 × $150. The “Final Payment” line shows that last amount.

Can this match my card statement exactly?

Not to the cent. Issuers often calculate interest on a daily balance and may apply it at different points in the billing cycle, whereas this tool applies one month of interest on the opening balance. Use it to compare payment amounts against each other, and rely on your statement for the actual payoff figure.

What is not included in the calculation?

New purchases, annual or late fees, cash-advance rates, a variable APR that changes over time, minimum-payment schedules that shrink as the balance falls, grace periods, and any effect on a credit score. The balance, rate and payment are treated as constant inputs you typed.

How does it handle several cards, or a choice between avalanche and snowball?

It models one card at a time and has no payoff-order setting. Avalanche means sending spare money to the highest-rate balance first, and snowball means the smallest balance first; the Debt Payoff Calculator on this site runs several balances under either order. Here, you can run each card separately to see its own timeline.

What does it do with a balance of 0, an emptied box or negative numbers?

A balance of 0 returns “Nothing to pay off”. A rate of 0% is used as zero, giving no interest. A monthly payment of 0 shows a “No payment entered” warning and the interest-only minimum, because the balance never falls. Clearing a box counts as typing 0, since the page turns an empty number box into 0, and negative entries are treated as 0. Results are shown to the cent, and the time is a whole number of months.