How Long Will It Take to Pay Off My Credit Card?

The number that changes what people do

A $5,000 balance at 22.9% APR, paying $200 a month, clears in 35 months and costs $1,859 in interest.

That's the headline. But the figure that actually lands is smaller and closer:

$95.42 of your next $200 payment is interest.

Not next year's. This month's. Nearly half of a payment that feels substantial does nothing at all to what you owe.

The arithmetic

Solving for time rather than for a payment needs a logarithm.

Monthly rate: 22.9 ÷ 1200 = 0.019083

This month's interest: 0.019083 × $5,000 = $95.42

Months: −ln(1 − 0.019083 × 5000 ÷ 200) ÷ ln(1.019083) = 34.3, rounded up to 35

Total paid: 34.3 × $200 = $6,859 — of which $1,859 is interest

The cliff at $95.42

Here's the part worth sitting with.

That $95.42 isn't just a fact about this month. It's a threshold. Your payment has to beat it before the balance moves at all.

Monthly payment	Time to clear	Interest paid
$95	Never	—
$96	270 months (22.5 years)	$20,917
$200	35 months	$1,859
$500	12 months	$601

One dollar separates "never" from "22.5 years." And at $96 you'd pay more than four times the original balance in interest — while making a payment every single month for more than two decades.

If the calculator shows a dash, that's what's happening: your payment doesn't cover the interest, the balance grows, and there's no payoff date to display. That's not an error. It's the most important thing the tool can tell you.

Why the minimum payment is designed the way it is

The minimum isn't built to clear your debt. It's built to keep the account current.

Crucially, it shrinks as your balance shrinks — so every bit of progress reduces the payment, which slows the next bit of progress. That's what stretches repayment across years and maximises the interest collected.

A fixed payment, which is what this calculator models, is a genuinely different thing. Same starting amount, dramatically shorter timeline, because it doesn't back off as you make headway.

If you take one action from this page: set a standing payment and leave it alone.

The assumption that breaks first

This calculation assumes no new spending on the card.

That's the one that undoes most payoff plans. Keep using the card and the payments feel identical while the finish line moves further away every month — the effort is constant and the progress isn't, which is exactly the shape that makes people give up.

Paying down a card you're still using is a different problem from the one modelled here, and it's why "stop using it" is standard advice rather than a moral position. The arithmetic is simply working against you otherwise.

A balance transfer, modelled honestly

A 0% promotional transfer can help a lot. Model it properly:

1. Put 0 in the APR box and the promotional length in your head
2. Check whether you'd actually clear the balance inside that window
3. Remember the transfer fee — typically a few percent, charged up front

If the balance doesn't clear before the promotion ends, the remainder reverts to a normal rate. The gain is real, but only if the timeline fits.

If your statement shows more than one rate

This models a single APR. Real cards often carry several at once — purchases, cash advances and transfers each at their own rate, with payments allocated between them by rules in your cardholder agreement.

Cash advance rates are usually the highest and frequently have no grace period, so a balance containing one will clear more slowly than this suggests. Use the purchase APR if most of the balance is purchases, and treat the answer as an approximation.

Print the debt payoff tracker. The balance column is the point — it moves slowly, and watching it move is most of what keeps the plan alive.

General information, not financial advice. Your statement and cardholder agreement are the authority on rates and how payments are allocated. If debt has become unmanageable, a non-profit credit counselling service can do more than a calculator.