Credit Card Payment Calculator
Find out how long a balance really takes to clear and how much interest it costs. Compare the slow grind of a percentage-based minimum against a fixed monthly payment, and watch the payoff timeline change.
The Amortization Schedule
Here is the month-by-month path to zero. Each row shows the payment, how much went to principal, how much went to interest, and the balance left afterward. The first year is shown by default; open the full schedule to see every month.
| Month | Payment | Principal | Interest | Balance |
|---|
Why Minimum Payments Cost So Much
A minimum payment is usually a small percentage of your balance, often with a dollar floor. Because the percentage shrinks as the balance drops, the payment shrinks too, and the payoff stretches out for years. Most of your early money goes to interest, not the balance. On a typical card, paying only the minimum can turn a modest balance into a multi-year commitment and double what you originally owed.
The fix is simple to see here: enter a fixed monthly payment that is higher than the minimum. Even a small increase can cut the timeline dramatically and save a large share of the interest, because every extra dollar goes straight at the principal. Try adding twenty or fifty dollars to the minimum and watch the total interest fall.
How the Math Runs
Each month, the calculator charges interest on your balance at the monthly rate, then subtracts your payment. If you set a fixed payment, it uses that. Otherwise it uses the greater of your percentage minimum or the dollar floor. The toggle lets you model issuers that add the month's interest on top of the percentage minimum. It repeats month after month until the balance reaches zero, capped at 50 years to catch payments too small to ever clear the debt.
Once you have a plan, keep the momentum going. The loan payment calculator can show whether a fixed personal loan would cost less than your card, and the interest savings calculator shows what that freed-up money could become. If a bill cannot wait, our request form matches you with lenders in about a minute.