Free tool
Credit card payoff calculator
Pick a monthly payment or pick a target timeline. See the payoff date, the total interest, and what minimums would actually cost you.
Your card
How long will it take?
Paid off
Aug 2029
35 months from today
Pay $200 per month
Total interest
$1,871
paid to the card issuer
That's 37% of your balance
Total paid
$6,871
over 35 months
Original balance: $5,000
The minimum-payment trap
If you paid only the typical 2% minimum ($100/month at start), it would take 14 years to pay off and cost $11,694 in interest. Paying $200/month saves you $9,823 and 11 years.
Have multiple cards? Vekfinance's debt cockpit runs this for all of them at once with avalanche / snowball strategies built in.
Open free in VekfinanceMinimum payments are designed to keep you paying for decades. Doubling your monthly payment usually cuts the payoff time more than 50% and slashes total interest by 60 to 80 percent.
$5,000 balance at 22% APR
The most-quoted credit card debt scenario in personal finance. Watch what happens at different payment levels.
- $100/mo (2% min, held flat)
- ~11 yrs / $8.7K interest
- $200/mo
- 34 months / $1.7K interest
- $400/mo
- 15 months / $730 interest
- $500/mo
- 12 months / $574 interest
→ Going from a flat $100/month to $200/month saves about $6,900 in interest and roughly 9 years. The marginal return drops fast after that; $200 is the sweet spot for this scenario.
Typical APRs to know
Average card
22%
Q2 2025 Fed survey
Store cards
27-29%
Target, Best Buy, etc.
0% intro APR
0%
For 12-21 months
Personal loan
10-14%
Consolidation alternative
Balance transfer or consolidation loan?
0% balance transfer card
12 to 21 months at 0% APR, 3-5% transfer fee upfront. Worth it if you have a plan to pay off the balance before the intro ends. Skip if you'd let the balance roll over.
Personal loan (10-14% APR)
Fixed monthly payment, fixed payoff date, no APR creep. Worth it if you've got the discipline not to re-rack up the cleared credit card after consolidating.
The minimum-payment trap
One card vs many
This calculator handles one card. Most people with credit card debt have 2-4 cards. Use the debt payoff calculator to run avalanche vs snowball strategies across all of them. The Vekfinance dashboard automates the whole thing: live balances via bank sync, real-time payoff projections, goal tracking month over month.
Frequently asked questions
What's a typical credit card APR?
Regular cards: 18-24% as of 2025. Store cards: often 25-29%. Some 0% intro APR cards run 12-21 months at 0% then jump to 22-29% on the remaining balance. The Federal Reserve's Q2 2025 survey put the average assessed APR around 22%.
Why are minimum payments a trap?
On a $5,000 balance at 22% APR, the typical 2% minimum (~$100) means about $92 of that goes to interest in the first month. Only $8 reduces your balance. Held flat at $100/month it takes about 11 years to pay off and costs roughly $8,700 in interest on the $5,000 balance (and a real declining minimum stretches it out even further).
Should I pay more than the minimum?
Always. Every extra dollar you pay above the minimum goes straight to balance reduction (no interest skim). The math is dramatic: doubling your minimum payment usually cuts the payoff time by more than half and slashes total interest by 60-80%.
What about a 0% balance transfer card?
Can be a great move if you have the discipline to pay the balance off during the intro period. Typical 0% intro is 12-21 months with a 3-5% transfer fee. Math: a $5,000 balance with a 3% fee costs $150 upfront but saves you the 22% APR for the intro window. Just don't let the balance roll over to the post-intro APR.
How accurate is this calculator?
Exact. We use the standard amortization formula. Real-life differs only if your APR changes (some cards have variable rates that move with the Fed) or you add new purchases (which restart the cycle).
What if I have multiple cards?
Run this calculator for each one to understand its individual payoff curve. For optimizing across multiple debts, use our debt payoff calculator which compares avalanche (highest-APR first) and snowball (smallest-balance first) strategies side-by-side.
Need a different calculator? Try our debt payoff calculator, savings goal calculator, or compound interest calculator.
Stop paying interest on autopilot
Vekfinance pulls your card balances in real time and runs avalanche / snowball plans across all your cards. Free.
Get started, free