Credit Card Interest Calculator

Credit card interest is the most expensive debt most people carry, and the reason is the rate. Rates in the low twenties are common, which means a balance can grow by two per cent a month — around a quarter of the balance every year — before you pay a single cent of principal. At that speed the minimum payment barely keeps up. The trap is that the minimum is designed to be affordable, not to clear the debt. When a card sets a minimum of one or two per cent of the balance, that minimum falls as the balance falls, so the debt shrinks ever more slowly. A six-thousand-dollar balance at twenty-three per cent can take well over a decade to clear on minimums, and you can pay more in interest than the original balance. The payment you choose changes everything. Doubling a two-hundred-dollar payment does not halve the time, it cuts it by far more, because a larger payment attacks principal early, which shrinks every later interest charge. That is why the fastest route is to fix a payment you can genuinely sustain and leave it there, rather than paying a little more only when you feel guilty. This calculator shows first-month interest, payoff time and total interest. It assumes the rate stays fixed and you add no new spending — the moment you keep spending on the card, the maths changes. For a real plan, treat the output as a target and confirm your actual APR, which is printed on every statement, before you commit.

This calculator returns estimates for general information only. It is not financial, investment, tax or legal advice, and it cannot replace guidance from a qualified professional who knows your circumstances. Figures such as loan payments, investment growth and retirement projections are simplified models based on the inputs and assumptions you provide, not guarantees of future results.