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Credit card minimum payment calculator: what it really costs
With your real balance and rate, how many years you would take to clear it and how much extra you would pay.
Paying the minimum on a credit card can double or triple what you owe, and in many cases the debt never ends at all. That happens when the monthly payment does not even cover the interest for the month: the balance goes up faster than you pay it down. The calculator below tells you, with your real balance and your real rate, how long it would take and how much extra you would pay.
The maths happens in your browser. None of the figures you type leave your device or get stored anywhere.
Why the minimum payment is a mathematical trap
The minimum payment is not designed to get you out of debt. It is designed to keep the debt alive without you falling into default. It is usually between 1% and 5% of the balance plus the interest for the period, and at many banks that percentage is so low it barely covers the interest that has just accrued.
The consequence is the one you can see above: if your monthly payment is less than or equal to the interest for the month, the balance goes up. It does not matter how many years you pay, the debt never dies. And if your payment is barely above that line, the debt does die, but it can take more than a decade and you end up returning three times what you borrowed.
How it is calculated, so you can check it
No tricks and no convenient rounding. It is exactly what a bank does:
- Your rate is converted to monthly. If you entered it as an effective annual rate, the exact equivalence is
(1 + rate)^(1/12) − 1. An effective annual rate of 24% is not 2% a month, it is 1.809%. Dividing by twelve is a shortcut that understates the interest. - Each month the interest is added to the balance and your payment is subtracted:
balance = balance × (1 + i) − payment. - It repeats until the balance reaches zero, counting the months and adding up everything paid.
That is the same formula AI Money uses to project your debts, so the number on this page and the number in the app always match.
What to do with the result
Find your break-even point. It is the first month’s interest the calculator shows you. Anything you pay below that figure reduces nothing; anything above it is the only part that actually brings the debt down.
Raise the payment even a little. Try increasing it by 20% in the calculator. The difference in years and in interest is usually far larger than people expect, because compound interest works just as hard in both directions.
If you have several debts, attack the highest rate first. That is the avalanche method and mathematically it always wins. The other school of thought, clearing the smallest balance first to see one disappear, costs more money but works better for many people because they do not abandon it.
And above all, look at it written down. Card debt grows while nobody is watching. Putting a death date on a specific number changes how you treat it.
If the minimum is larger than the month’s interest, the debt goes down but very slowly and you can end up paying two or three times what you owed. If the minimum is less than or equal to the month’s interest, the balance rises every month and the debt never ends.
With the formula (1 + annual rate)^(1/12) − 1. An effective annual rate of 24% equals 1.809% a month, not the 2% you get by dividing by twelve. Dividing by twelve is only correct for nominal rates such as APR.
More than the month’s interest, which is your balance multiplied by the monthly rate. Everything above that figure is the only part that reduces the principal; below it, the debt grows.
No. The calculation happens entirely in your browser with JavaScript and none of the figures you enter are sent to any server or saved anywhere.
Yes. Any debt with monthly compound interest and a fixed payment behaves the same way: personal loans, consumer credit or car finance. Only the rate you enter changes.
Keep reading
- All the free financial calculators
- The best budgeting apps of 2026
- The AI Money blog
- CFPB guidance on credit cards
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Updated August 14, 2026
