Card payoff: drag the payment
Drag the handle to set a flat monthly payment on a revolving balance. The headline is months to clear. A mark sits at month-one interest. At or below that line the payment never clears the debt, because it does not cover the first month's charge.
Months to clear
132 months
Interest if it clears
$10,378.84
Month one charges $114.50 of interest. A payment at or below that line never clears the $6,000 balance. Illustrative arithmetic, not a payoff plan or advice.
Balance and rate
$6,000 at 22.9 percent, held still.
In short
- Drag the handle right for a larger payment, left for a smaller one.
- Watch the months fall. The relationship is not proportional.
- Stop on the interest line: that payment covers the charge and nothing else.
- Nudge just above the line to see a term measured in many years.
Interest first, then the balance
A card charges interest on what you owe, takes that off the payment, and only then cuts the balance. The closed form for the months sits on that split. How credit card payoff works is the identity, with the credit card payoff calculator under the answer.
The last payment is almost always short. The picture rounds up to the next whole month and collects only what is left.
The line where the debt stops clearing
If the payment equals month-one interest, the balance sits still forever. Below that line the unpaid interest is added and the balance grows. The calculator, and this picture, show no payoff date there on purpose.
Just above the line is the expensive place to be. The formula is close to vertical, so a whisker of extra payment still returns a term measured in decades. APR on a card is a nominal rate. How APR and APY work is the compounding gap.
A bigger payment is not a proportional cut
Extra dollars go straight to the balance, and a dollar of balance removed in month one stops charging interest in every month after it. That is why a modest raise in the payment can cut the term by half. How credit cards charge interest is the daily-balance machinery behind the monthly rate.
Common questions
Why does a payment below the mark never clear?
Because it does not cover the first month's interest. The unpaid charge is added to the balance, so next month's interest is larger. No number of payments that size will catch it.
Is this the minimum payment on a statement?
No. A required minimum is usually recalculated from the falling balance. This picture holds one payment steady.
Should I pay this amount?
The picture will not say. It is months and interest on a teaching-sheet balance. It is educational material, not advice.
Keep reading
This page is educational material, not financial advice. The figures come from the formula shown and assume the inputs you enter hold for the whole term. Your own rate, fees, taxes and timing will differ, so treat the output as arithmetic to check a decision against, not as a recommendation.