Credit Card Payoff Calculator

How this is calculated

This solves for TIME rather than for a payment, which needs a logarithm. The monthly rate is the APR divided by 1200 - by 100 to turn the percentage into a decimal, then by 12 for the months. The number of months is minus the natural log of (1 - monthly rate x balance / payment), divided by the natural log of (1 + monthly rate), rounded up to a whole month because the final payment is a partial one. At an APR of exactly zero that formula divides by zero, so the calculator switches to plain division - the balance spread across the payments. The first-month interest is the monthly rate times the balance. It is shown because it is the figure that makes the situation concrete: it is the part of this month's payment that does not reduce what you owe at all. It is also the threshold. If your payment is less than that number, the balance GROWS every month and the debt is never repaid - the calculator shows a dash rather than a number, because there is no answer to give. That is not an error; it is the honest result, and it is the single most important thing this tool can tell you. The calculation assumes a fixed payment every month, a fixed APR, and no new spending on the card. All three assumptions break easily in real life. New purchases are the one that undoes people most often, because the payoff date recedes while the payments feel unchanged - a card you are paying down and still using is a different problem from the one modelled here. It also assumes one APR. Real cards frequently run several at once - purchases, cash advances and balance transfers each at their own rate, with payments allocated between them by rules set out in your cardholder agreement. If your statement shows more than one rate, treat this as an approximation.

Common questions

Why does it show a dash instead of a number?

Because at that payment the debt is never repaid. If your monthly payment is smaller than the interest charged that month, the balance grows even though you are paying - so there is no payoff date to show, and printing a very large number would suggest there is one. Compare your payment with the 'interest in this month's payment' figure: your payment has to beat it before any progress happens at all, and it needs to beat it by a comfortable margin before progress is meaningful.

Why is the first-month interest figure worth looking at?

Because it turns an abstract rate into the cost of one month. At a 22.9 percent APR on a 5000 dollar balance, about 95 dollars of a 200 dollar payment is interest - so a payment that feels substantial moves the balance by about a hundred. Seeing that is usually what changes behaviour, more than the total interest figure does, because it is about this month rather than about three years from now.

What if I keep using the card?

Then this calculation does not describe your situation. It assumes no new spending, and new purchases are what undoes most payoff plans - the payments feel the same while the finish line moves further away every month. Paying down a card you are still using is a genuinely different problem, and the usual advice to stop using it exists because the arithmetic is otherwise working against you.

Should I pay the minimum?

The minimum is designed to keep the account current, not to clear the debt - it typically falls as the balance falls, which stretches repayment out for years and maximises the interest collected. A FIXED payment, which is what this calculator models, clears the balance far faster than the same starting amount as a shrinking minimum, because the payment does not shrink as you make progress.

What about a balance transfer?

A promotional zero-percent transfer can help a great deal, but model it honestly: put 0 in the APR box for the promotional months and check whether you would actually clear the balance before it ends. If not, the remainder reverts to a normal rate, and transfer fees of a few percent are usually charged up front. The gain is real but only if the timeline fits inside the promotional window.

My statement shows more than one rate. Which do I use?

This models a single APR, so treat multiple rates as an approximation - use the purchase APR if most of the balance is purchases. Real cards often carry separate rates for purchases, cash advances and transfers, with payments allocated between them by rules in your cardholder agreement. Cash advance rates are usually the highest and often have no grace period, so a balance including one will clear more slowly than this suggests.

Take it further with AI

Copy this into ChatGPT or Claude with your own numbers filled in. It hands over the figures this calculator worked out, so the answer is built on real arithmetic instead of a guess.

I used the Credit Card Payoff Calculator at https://www.bfcbrilliance.com/tools/credit-card-payoff-calculator.

What I entered:
- Balance owed ($): ___
- APR (% a year): ___
- You pay each month ($): ___

What it calculated:
- Months to clear it: ___
- Which is: ___
- Total you will hand over: ___
- Of that, interest: ___
- Interest in THIS month's payment: ___

Use those figures as given — they are already worked out, so please don't recalculate or estimate your own. Help me turn them into a plan: what to buy or do, in what order, roughly what it should cost, and the mistakes people most often make with this job.

Keep this general and do not give financial advice — flag where I should talk to a qualified adviser.

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