Calculation & Conversion / Calculators
Credit Card Payoff Calculator
This calculator turns a pile of card balances into a month-by-month payoff plan. Enter each card's balance and APR, then either set what you can pay each month or a date you want to be debt-free; it simulates interest and payments one month at a time, in whole cents, until every balance reaches zero. It runs the two standard orderings side by side — avalanche (highest APR first) and snowball (smallest balance first) — and prices what paying only the minimum would actually cost you.
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Your debts
3 of 8 · $11,500 total
Your plan
Avalanche puts every spare dollar on the highest APR — the cheapest order on paper. Both methods still pay every minimum every month; they differ only in where the extra goes.
Total across all cards, including minimums. Your minimums add up to $336.70 in month one — the payment has to cover that.
The formula the CFPB documents at most large issuers. The percentage barely touches principal — nearly the whole payment is the interest charge.
Debt-free in
1 year 10 months
Paying $650 a month clears $11,500 of debt. The interest bill on top is $2,530, so $14,030 leaves your account in total.
Month one sends $221.70 of your $650 to interest — that is 34% of the payment. Only $428.30 actually reduces what you owe.
Avalanche vs snowball
Both plans use the same $650 a month. Only the order in which the extra money is thrown at your cards changes.
| Measure | Avalanche highest APR first | Snowball smallest balance first |
|---|---|---|
| Total interest paid | $2,530.13 | $2,701.39 |
| Time to debt-free | 1 year 10 months | 1 year 10 months |
| First card cleared | Month 9 | Month 6 |
Avalanche saves $171.26
Snowball closes its first account in month 6, against month 9 for the avalanche. A 2012 Kellogg study of 6,000 real payoff programmes found that closing accounts early — not rate ordering — predicted who actually got out of debt.
If you only ever paid the minimum
21 years 1 month and $18,928 in interest, against 1 year 10 months and $2,530 on your plan — a difference of $16,398.
This is the trap the CARD Act's minimum-payment warning box exists to expose.
Order of attack under the avalanche
Every card gets its minimum every month; the extra goes to #1 until it is gone, then rolls to #2, and so on.
| # | Card | Balance | APR | Minimum | Cleared | Interest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Store card | $3,400 | 27.49% | $111.89 | Month 9 | $394 |
| 2 | Card B — Mastercard | $6,250 | 21.99% | $177.03 | Month 20 | $1,581 |
| 3 | Card A — Visa | $1,850 | 18.99% | $47.78 | Month 22 | $555 |
Month-by-month schedule
Showing 11 of 22 months — the first six, every month a card clears, and the last four.
Principal is the payment minus that month's interest. When a card has a high enough rate, that number can sit near zero for a long time — which is the whole problem.
| Month | Interest | Payment | Principal | Balance left | Card cleared |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $221.70 | $650.00 | $428.30 | $11,071.70 | |
| 2 | $212.30 | $650.00 | $437.70 | $10,634.00 | |
| 3 | $202.68 | $650.00 | $447.32 | $10,186.68 | |
| 4 | $192.85 | $650.00 | $457.15 | $9,729.53 | |
| 5 | $182.78 | $650.00 | $467.22 | $9,262.31 | |
| 6 | $172.48 | $650.00 | $477.52 | $8,784.79 | |
| 9 | $140.10 | $650.00 | $509.90 | $7,287.98 | Store card |
| 19 | $37.28 | $650.00 | $612.72 | $1,632.16 | |
| 20 | $26.09 | $650.00 | $623.91 | $1,008.25 | Card B — Mastercard |
| 21 | $15.96 | $650.00 | $634.04 | $374.21 | |
| 22 | $5.92 | $380.13 | $374.21 | $0.00 | Card A — Visa |
What changes this answer
Minimums only would take over a decade
Minimums only takes 21 years 1 month and costs $18,928 in interest. Your plan finishes in 1 year 10 months for $2,530 — a difference of $16,398.
Avalanche saves $171 — but check which one you will finish
The gap comes from your rate spread. Avalanche reaches debt-free in 1 year 10 months; snowball closes its first account in month 6 (avalanche's first is month 9). If slow visible progress has derailed you before, an early closed account can be worth more than $171.
Worth pricing a balance transfer against this number
At a 3%-5% fee, moving $11,500 costs $345-$575 up front and stops interest during the 0% window (typically 12-21 months). It beats your projected $2,530 in interest only if the balance is cleared before the promotional rate ends — after that it usually resets at or above your current APR.
This assumes you stop adding to these cards
Every figure here treats the balances as fixed. New charges at these APRs restart the clock, and carrying more than 30% of your limit on any one card pushes your credit score down, which raises the rate on whatever you borrow next. If new spending is unavoidable, routing it to a separate card you clear in full each month keeps this plan intact.
How this is calculated
- Interest per month
- balance × APR ÷ 12, rounded to the cent
- Minimum payment
- 1% of balance + interest
- Extra money
- payment − every minimum, sent to the highest APR
- Assumption
- no new charges, no missed payments, fixed APR
Every figure is computed in whole cents and the monthly schedule adds up exactly: total paid = starting balance + total interest. You can check any row with a calculator. Average U.S. card APRs are 20.97% across all accounts and 22.30% on accounts actually assessed interest (Federal Reserve G.19, 2025 Q4).
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How to use
- 1
List every card with its balance and APR
Use the current statement balance and the purchase APR — not a promotional rate that is about to expire. Add each card with the '+ Add a debt' button; up to 8 can be compared at once. Check whether the smallest balance is also the most expensive one, because that single fact often decides which method to use.
- 2
Choose how you want to set it up
Switch to 'Monthly amount' if you know what you can afford — enter the total across all cards, including minimums — or to 'Target date' if you have a deadline in mind, and the calculator solves for the payment that gets you there. Either way, the payment has to cover the minimums before any of it can be sent to a target balance.
- 3
Tell it how your issuer sets the minimum
Most large issuers use roughly 1% of the balance plus that month's finance charge; many others use a flat 2% with a $25 floor. Check your statement — the difference is enormous, and it changes the cost of the minimum-only path you are being compared against.
- 4
Read the avalanche-versus-snowball table before the headline
The interest difference is the number people argue about, and on typical balances it is small. The row that matters more is 'first card cleared': under the snowball one balance disappears early, under the avalanche often nothing closes for a year. That is the difference between a plan you finish and one you abandon.
- 5
Check the notes, then commit to the rolling payment
The notes cover the minimum-payment trap, whether a balance transfer is worth the 3%-5% fee, and the assumption that you stop adding new charges. When a card clears, its payment must roll onto the next balance rather than back into spending — that rollover is where both methods get their power.
Key facts
- FormulaEach month: interest = balance × APR ÷ 12, rounded to the cent. Minimum payment = 1% of the balance + that month's interest (or a flat 2% with a $25 floor, depending on the issuer). Extra = your payment − every minimum, sent entirely to the highest-APR balance (avalanche) or the smallest balance (snowball), then rolled forward as cards clear. Total paid always equals the starting balance plus total interest.Source:Federal Reserve Regulation Z amortisation; CFPB, The Consumer Credit Card Market (2025), on issuer minimum-payment formulas
- Benchmark ratesThe average APR on commercial bank credit card plans was 20.97% across all accounts and 22.30% on accounts assessed interest in 2025 Q4. The average cardholder carries roughly $6,500 of revolving debt, and at the 1% + interest formula a $5,000 balance at 21% takes 19 years and about $7,700 of interest to clear on minimums alone.Source:Federal Reserve G.19 Consumer Credit (2025 Q4); TransUnion and Experian average-balance data, 2025
- Which method people finishA study of roughly 6,000 people in real debt-settlement programmes found that closing accounts predicted successful debt elimination independently of the size of the balances closed — the avalanche minimises interest, but the snowball's early closed account is what predicts completion. Separately, spreading extra money evenly across every debt performs worse than concentrating it on one account.Source:Gal & McShane, 'Can Small Victories Help Win the War?', Journal of Marketing Research 49(4), 2012 (Northwestern Kellogg); Kettle et al., Journal of Consumer Research 43(3), 2016
- Cost of the keywordDebt and credit-card terms are among the most commercially valuable in personal finance, with banking and finance verticals earning roughly $15-$50 per thousand pageviews and debt-related clicks bidding well above general-interest rates.Source:Published finance-vertical RPM and CPC ranges, 2025
How this calculator works
The payoff is simulated month by month in whole cents. Interest each month is the balance multiplied by the APR divided by twelve, rounded to the cent; the payment covers that interest first and principal second. The minimum payment follows the issuer formula you select — commonly one percent of the balance plus the month's interest, subject to a floor — and the simulation stops in the month every balance reaches zero. Payments are assumed to fall at the end of each month.
Two orderings run side by side. Avalanche sends every spare dollar to the highest APR; snowball targets the smallest balance. They are arithmetically identical and differ only in ordering, which is why avalanche usually costs less in total interest while snowball usually closes the first account sooner. The model assumes no new charges, a fixed APR and no late fees, so a plan that holds only while you stop using the cards will be optimistic if you do not.
Sources and standards
Disclaimer
This is an educational calculator, not financial advice. The result is an arithmetic projection of the figures you enter: it does not know your full circumstances, the terms of a specific offer, or the tax and regulatory rules that apply where you live. Confirm any figure against the terms of the product itself, or with a licensed professional, before acting on it.
Last reviewed:
Frequently asked questions
Avalanche or snowball — which one should I use?
Avalanche (highest APR first) always wins on paper and never loses: it minimises total interest because every spare dollar goes to the balance costing the most per day. How much it wins by depends entirely on the spread between your rates. On a typical portfolio of average debts — $7,279 of card debt, an $11,281 personal loan, a $40,851 auto loan and $43,750 of student loans, paid at the minimums plus $500 a month — a 2019 LendingTree study found the two methods finish in the same 57 months and differ by just $29. Where the rates are wide, the gap is real: $9,000 at 24.06% next to cheaper debt saved $1,292 and a full month under the avalanche. But the research on finishing argues the other way. A 2012 study by Gal and McShane at Northwestern's Kellogg School followed about 6,000 people through real debt-settlement programmes and found that closing accounts — regardless of their size — predicted who eliminated their debt, while rate ordering did not. The practical answer: if your rates are similar, snowball; if you have one expensive balance far above the rest, avalanche; and if you have abandoned plans before, the method you actually stick with beats the one that is optimal on paper.
What happens if I only pay the minimum?
The balance is designed not to move. Under the formula the CFPB documents at most large issuers — roughly 1% of the balance plus that month's finance charge — the percentage barely covers the interest, so almost nothing comes off principal. On $5,000 at 21%, month one charges $87.50 of interest and the minimum is $137.50: 64% of your payment is the cost of borrowing, and only $50 reduces what you owe. Because the floor is $25 and the percentage is small, balances under about $900 stop falling meaningfully at all. This is exactly what the Credit CARD Act of 2009 requires issuers to warn you about — every statement carries a minimum-payment warning box showing the years and the interest. The CFPB's 2025 report to Congress found about 15% of general-purpose card accounts pay only the minimum, and roughly a third of subprime cardholders do on both general-purpose and store cards. Raising the payment is not linear improvement: the last dollars you add each month buy far more than the first ones.
Is a balance transfer worth it?
Only if you clear the balance before the promotional rate ends. A 0% intro offer typically runs 12 to 21 months, and the fee is usually 3% to 5% of what you move — so transferring $11,500 costs $345 to $575 up front. Compare that to the interest you would otherwise pay: if your plan projects $2,500 of interest, the fee is comfortably cheaper, and you can run the numbers on this page by setting your APR for the transferred balance to 0 during the promo window. The trap is what happens on month 13. When the promotional period ends, the rate resets to the go-to APR, which is frequently at or above your current rate, and many issuers apply payments to the promotional balance first so the transferred amount lingers while new purchases accrue interest at the standard rate. Two rules keep it on the right side of the maths: divide the balance by the number of promo months and commit to that payment, and do not use the new card for spending.
How long will it take to pay off my credit card?
It depends far more on the monthly payment than on the balance. At a fixed $300 a month, $5,000 at 21% clears in 20 months and costs about $960 in interest. Drop the payment to the issuer's minimum on the same balance and it takes 228 months — 19 years — and costs roughly $7,700 in interest, because the minimum itself shrinks as the balance falls. The same arithmetic explains the national numbers: the average cardholder carries about $6,500 of revolving debt at an average APR near 21% to 22% (Federal Reserve G.19: 20.97% across all accounts, 22.30% on accounts actually assessed interest, 2025 Q4), and most who make only minimum payments stay in debt for over a decade. Run your own balances through the calculator above: the headline shows the exact months, and the schedule shows what each payment does.
Should I pay off debt or build an emergency fund first?
Do both, in that order, but keep the emergency fund small until the expensive debt is gone. A card at 21% APR is a guaranteed negative 21% return, which no savings account competes with, so every spare dollar should go to the debt. The reason not to skip the emergency fund entirely is that an unexpected bill lands right back on the card — and if the card is close to its limit, the extra utilisation pushes your credit score down, raising the rate on whatever you borrow next. A common compromise is to hold one month of essential expenses in cash while you attack the balances, then build it to three to six months once the cards are clear. After the debt is gone, financial orders worth following are the employer match on a retirement account, then the full emergency fund, then high-interest debt, then everything else.
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