Credit card payoff calculator
This models a fixed monthly payment. A card minimum payment is a percentage of the balance and therefore falls as the balance does, which stretches the payoff far longer than a fixed payment of the same starting size.
A 6,000 balance at 22.9% cleared over 36 months costs about 232 a month and 2,350 in interest. Paying an extra 50 a month clears it roughly six months sooner and saves several hundred — card interest is high enough that small extra payments matter a lot.
How to plan a card payoff
The minimum payment is the trap this page exists to expose. Because it is a percentage of the balance, it falls as the balance falls, and the payoff stretches to decades — a 6,000 balance on minimums alone can take over twenty years and cost more in interest than the original spending. Fixing the payment at the current minimum and never reducing it is the single most effective change available, and it costs nothing extra in month one. Where several cards exist, paying the highest rate first is mathematically optimal, though paying the smallest balance first works better for some people because the early win sustains the effort.
Questions
At a fixed payment, the schedule above. On minimum payments alone, a 6,000 balance at typical rates can take over twenty years.