Find out how long it takes to clear your balance, and how much a bigger payment saves.
How this is calculated Embed on your siteUpdated October 2026
Enter your balance, interest rate and what you pay each month, and the calculator shows your payoff date and the total interest you will pay. It also shows what an extra payment would save. With the defaults, an $8,000 balance at 22.9% APR paid at $300 a month takes 38 months and costs $3,286 in interest. Adding $100 a month cuts that to 26 months and saves $1,112.
Credit card interest is charged on whatever balance is left each month, so the faster the balance falls, the less interest you pay. Small increases in your payment make a big difference:
| Monthly payment | Time to pay off | Total interest | Total paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| $200 | 6 years 5 months | $7,247 | $15,247 |
| $250 | 4 years 2 months | $4,476 | $12,476 |
| $300 | 3 years 2 months | $3,286 | $11,286 |
| $400 | 2 years 2 months | $2,173 | $10,173 |
| $500 | 1 year 8 months | $1,637 | $9,637 |
$8,000 balance at 22.9% APR, no new charges.
At $200 a month, almost half of everything you pay goes to interest. Going from $200 to $300 saves nearly $4,000 and more than three years.
This calculator assumes a fixed payment. Card minimums usually work differently: they are often set at about 1% to 3% of the balance plus that month's interest, so the required payment shrinks as the balance shrinks. That keeps the minimum feeling manageable, but it can stretch payoff out for more than a decade and multiply the interest. Your statement is required to show how long payoff takes at the minimum. To model it yourself, use the credit card minimum payment calculator. The simple fix is to pick a fixed dollar amount, like the one you are paying today, and keep paying it even as the minimum falls.
Your APR is divided into a daily or monthly rate and charged on your balance. At 22.9%, that is about 1.9% a month. On an $8,000 balance, the first month's interest is around $153, so only $147 of a $300 payment actually reduces what you owe. As the balance falls, more of each payment goes to principal, which is why payoff speeds up near the end.
If any part of your balance is at a different rate, such as a cash advance or a promotional rate, the real result will differ. New purchases also add to the balance; the calculator assumes you stop using the card while you pay it off.
Credit utilization, the share of your available credit you are using, is one of the biggest factors in most credit scores. Paying a card down usually helps your score as the balance falls. Many people keep the account open after it is paid off, because closing it reduces your available credit and can push utilization back up on your other cards.
At 22.9% APR, about 38 months at $300 a month, with $3,286 in interest. At $500 a month it takes 20 months and costs $1,637.
Your APR is converted to a daily or monthly rate and charged on the balance you carry. At 22.9% APR the monthly rate is about 1.9%, so an $8,000 balance accrues roughly $153 in the first month.
Yes. Minimums shrink as your balance falls, which can stretch payoff to many years. Paying a fixed amount above the minimum cuts both the time and the interest dramatically.
The balance will never go down. The calculator flags this as "Never." You need to pay more than the interest charged each month to make progress.
Most people benefit from a small emergency fund first, so a surprise expense does not go back on the card, then putting extra money toward high-rate card debt, which is usually more expensive than any savings account pays.
The calculator applies one-twelfth of the APR to the balance each month and assumes a fixed payment with no new charges. See our methodology page.