Months and interest to clear a card on a fixed payment, the minimum, or in 36 months
Estimates only, not financial advice. What you type stays on your device. Checked against sources on 5 Oct 2026.A $6,000 credit card balance at 24% APR costs $120 of interest in the first month. Paying $250 a month clears it in 34 months with $2,255.59 of interest; paying only a minimum of 1% plus interest takes 216 months and costs $10,251.91. Enter your balance, APR and payment to see your own payoff date.
Rates and rules read from 15 U.S.C. §1637(b)(11), repayment information on card statements (CARD Act) on 5 Oct 2026; they may have changed since.
Enter the balance you owe and the card’s APR from your statement.
Enter the fixed amount you can pay each month, or switch to "Debt-free by" and enter the months.
Read the months to pay off and the total interest at the top.
Compare it with the minimum-payment path to see the interest a higher payment saves.
Open "Month by month" to see each payment split into interest and balance.
This calculator follows a credit card balance month by month until it reaches zero, and shows three ways of paying it side by side: the fixed amount you choose, the card's minimum payment, and the payment that clears it in 36 months.
How the interest works. A card's APR is turned into a daily periodic rate, the APR divided by 365: 24% is about 0.0658% a day. Over an average billing cycle of 30.4 days that is the APR divided by 12, so a month's interest here is the balance times APR ÷ 12, rounded to the cent. The interest is added first and your payment comes off the new balance. A payment that does not beat the month's interest never clears the balance, and the page says so instead of showing a date.
Minimum payments. Every card issuer sets its own minimum-payment formula, so it is an input. A common one is 1% of the new balance plus the month's interest, with a floor such as $35; others use 2% or 3% of the balance with nothing added. Copy yours from the card agreement. Because the minimum falls as the balance falls, paying only the minimum can take well over a decade.
The 36-month figure. Under 15 U.S.C. §1637(b)(11), added by the CARD Act, a US card statement must show a minimum payment warning, how long minimum payments alone would take, their total cost, and the monthly payment that clears the balance in 36 months. This page works out the same figures so you can check them before the statement arrives.
What it does not do. It assumes no new purchases, fees, penalty rates, promotional 0% periods or balance transfers, and it does not compound interest daily within a month, which some issuers do and which adds a few cents a month. For several cards at once, pay the highest APR first (the avalanche order) to pay the least interest. The currency setting changes only the symbol.
The time depends on the balance, the APR and the payment. A $6,000 balance at 24% APR takes 34 months on $250 a month, 24 months on $317.23, and 216 months on a minimum of 1% plus interest. Once the payment barely covers the month's interest, a small extra amount saves years.
Card issuers turn the APR into a daily periodic rate, the APR divided by 365, and charge it on the balance each day of the billing cycle. Over an average 30.4-day cycle that is close to the APR divided by 12: a 24% APR charges about 2% a month, or $120 on a $6,000 balance.
Minimum payments shrink as the balance shrinks, so most of each one goes to interest for years. With a minimum of 1% of the balance plus interest, at least $35, a $6,000 balance at 24% APR takes 18 years and costs $10,251.91 of interest, compared with $2,474.26 when paid off over 36 months.
Federal law, 15 U.S.C. §1637(b)(11), requires US card statements to show the monthly payment that would clear the balance in 36 months with no new charges, and its total cost. For $6,000 at 24% APR that payment is $235.40 a month. The calculator shows the same figure next to the minimum-payment path.
A payment no larger than the month's interest leaves the balance where it was or makes it grow. At 24% APR, a $6,000 balance charges $120 of interest in the first month, so a $120 payment never clears it. The calculator shows the smallest payment that makes progress and flags a payment below it.
Paying the highest APR first, the avalanche order, costs the least interest overall, because each extra dollar stops the most expensive interest. Paying the smallest balance first, the snowball order, clears whole cards sooner, which some people find easier to keep going. Run each card through this calculator to see the interest at stake.
Rates and rules change; check the source before you rely on a figure.
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