See how long your balance will take to clear at a given monthly payment — and what the interest costs.
Enter your current balance, the card's APR, and the fixed amount you can pay each month. The calculator solves the amortisation equation for time, telling you how many months until the balance hits zero, the total you'll hand over, and how much of that is pure interest. If your payment doesn't even cover the monthly interest, it will tell you that too — because in that case the balance never shrinks.
A $5,000 balance at 22.99% APR with $200/month payments takes about 35 months to clear and costs roughly $2,000 in interest. Raise the payment to $300 and you're done in about 21 months for around $1,300 of interest; drop to $110 and the payoff stretches to roughly 9 years, with interest topping $6,800 — more than the original balance itself. Small payment changes move the result enormously because card APRs are so high.
If your monthly payment is less than one month's interest (balance × APR ÷ 12), the balance grows instead of shrinking and no payoff date exists. Increase the payment above the interest amount — the calculator will then show a timeline.
Not exactly. Card minimums are usually a percentage of the balance and decline over time; this calculator assumes you pay the same fixed amount every month, which is both easier to model and dramatically faster in practice.
Enormously. Every extra dollar goes straight at the principal, reducing all future interest. Simulate it by rerunning the calculator with a lower starting balance after your lump-sum payment.