Credit Card Payoff Calculator

Reviewed 2026-08-27

Methodology and sources

This credit-card payoff planning result is derived only from the visible entered balance, APR, minimum payment, and planned monthly payment. It is a fixed-balance educational model, not an issuer statement or payoff quote, and it does not infer a current rate, card terms, future purchases, fees, or payment changes.

Formula in plain English

The credit-card payoff calculator uses the greater of the entered planned payment and minimum payment as the effective monthly payment, converts the entered APR percentage to a monthly rate as APR / 100 / 12, and uses the closed-form level-payment payoff month count rounded up when that payment exceeds the starting monthly interest. At zero APR it rounds balance divided by effective payment up; otherwise it returns the 9999 non-amortizing sentinel. Modeled total payment is effective payment times modeled months, and modeled interest is the nonnegative difference between that total and the starting balance.

Visible assumptions

• The model uses one fixed starting balance, one entered APR, and one constant effective monthly payment equal to the greater of the entered planned and minimum payments.
• No new purchases, cash advances, balance transfers, fees, credits, skipped payments, late payments, or rate changes occur during the modeled payoff period.
• Interest is approximated with one monthly rate; many real card agreements and statements instead use issuer-specific daily or average-daily-balance methods.
• The displayed total treats every modeled month, including the last one, as a full effective monthly payment.

Worked example

Limitations

• The model does not support daily-balance or average-daily-balance precision, multiple APR buckets, or issuer-specific compounding and minimum-payment formulas.
• It does not support fees, new purchases, cash advances, balance transfers, credits, promotional or deferred-interest terms, grace-period treatment, rate changes, delinquency, or card-specific payment allocation.
• The modeled final payment is not reduced to the remaining balance, so total payment and interest can overstate an actual payoff by part of one payment cycle.
• A 9999 result means the selected payment does not amortize the starting balance under this simplified model; it is a sentinel, not a literal 9,999-month payoff forecast.
• CFPB sources support consumer disclosure and contract-method boundaries only; they do not validate an entered APR, payment, payoff date, issuer result, or modeled interest amount.
• The output is not an issuer payoff quote, statement disclosure, credit-counseling plan, loan offer, legal advice, or financial recommendation.

Practical next steps

1. Compare the entered balance, APR, minimum payment, due date, and interest method with the current card statement and agreement.
2. Use the result only as a fixed-balance planning scenario and recalculate after any purchase, fee, credit, rate, or payment change.
3. Request an issuer payoff figure or qualified credit-counseling review when an exact account-specific timeline is needed.

Source records