Credit card minimum payment calculator
Run your actual balance through the minimum-payment formula month by month, not a shortcut estimate, and see it against a fixed payment on the same card.
Worked example — Total interest if you only pay the minimum on $6,200: $11,777. 24.99% APR, 1% of balance plus interest with a $25 floor, clearing in 257 months (21.4 years)
Simulate your own balance, month by month
The minimum payment formula on most cards is the greater of a flat dollar amount or a percent of the balance plus that month's interest. It changes every month, because the balance it is a percent of changes every month. This walks the exact recursion rather than estimating it, and reports the case where the balance never clears rather than hiding it.
$6,200 at 24.99%, minimum: 1% of balance plus interest, with a $25 floor: a common issuer minimum-payment formula.
Compare against a fixed payment 1
Standard month-by-month simulation: interest accrues on the starting balance each month, the required payment is applied, and the final month is trimmed to the exact remainder. Capped at 600 months (50 years); a line still falling at that point is flagged above rather than extrapolated past.
How long $6,200 takes to clear at the minimum payment
At 24.99% APR, paying 1% of the balance plus interest with a $25 floor, a $6,200 balance takes 257 months (21.4 years) to clear at the minimum payment, and costs $11,777 in interest on top of the balance, for $17,977 paid in total.
Most of that time is spent barely moving. Because the percent-of-balance term cancels the month's interest exactly and removes only 1% of what is left, the balance decays by a shrinking dollar amount every month rather than a constant one: it does not cross the $25 floor, where payoff accelerates, until the balance is under a few hundred dollars. That is why the count of months looks large next to how small the payment itself is.
Minimum payment vs a fixed higher payment
The same $6,200 at 24.99%, paid at a fixed $250 a month instead of the formula minimum, clears in 36 months instead of 257, 221 months sooner, and costs $2,614 in interest instead of $11,777, a saving of $9,163.
| Payment path | Months to clear | Total interest | Total paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum formula (1% + interest, $25 floor) | 257 | $11,777 | $17,977 |
| Fixed $250 a month | 36 | $2,614 | $8,814 |
The formula's own payment starts higher than $250 on this balance and falls below it within a couple of years, which is why the minimum path both takes longer and costs more: it is a shrinking payment against a debt that does not shrink at the same rate.
Months and total interest by balance and APR at the minimum
Every row below uses the same formula: 1% of balance plus interest, or a $25 floor, whichever is larger. Your own card's percent and floor may differ, and the calculator above takes both as inputs.
| Balance | APR | Months to clear | Years | Total interest | Total paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $2,000 | 18% | 131 | 10.9 | $2,039 | $4,039 |
| $2,000 | 24.99% | 145 | 12.1 | $3,030 | $5,030 |
| $2,000 | 29.99% | 154 | 12.8 | $3,767 | $5,767 |
| $6,200 | 18% | 244 | 20.3 | $8,339 | $14,539 |
| $6,200 | 24.99% | 257 | 21.4 | $11,777 | $17,977 |
| $6,200 | 29.99% | 266 | 22.2 | $14,263 | $20,463 |
| $10,000 | 18% | 291 | 24.3 | $14,039 | $24,039 |
| $10,000 | 24.99% | 305 | 25.4 | $19,691 | $29,691 |
| $10,000 | 29.99% | 314 | 26.2 | $23,760 | $33,760 |
When the minimum formula cannot outpace the interest
The common formula, a percent of balance plus interest, always pays at least the month's interest, because interest is added into the calculation directly rather than competing with it. That guarantees the balance shrinks. It does not guarantee the balance shrinks in a lifetime. On an $8,000 balance at 22% APR with a thin 0.4% percent-of-balance term and a $10 floor, this calculator's own simulation runs the full 600-month, 50-year horizon and still owes $722 at the end of it, having already paid $33,356 in interest along the way, more than four times the original balance. That is the trap: not a growing balance, but a shrinking one that never gets anywhere close to zero.
A $2,000 balance at 29.99% under the same 1%-plus-interest, $25-floor formula clears in 154 months, but the first payment is $70 against $50 of interest that same month, a principal reduction of only $20. A card issuer's own statement is required to carry a minimum payment warning box for exactly this reason: the payment that looks affordable is not the payment that clears the balance in a time frame most people would choose if the number were in front of them from the start.
Run every balance you carry through a real payoff order Price a balance transfer against staying put
The next question after this one
Debt snowball vs avalanche calculatorCalculatorOne card is one line of a bigger problem. This runs every balance you carry through the payoff order that actually saves the most.Open nextOther questions
- Balance transfer break-even calculatorCalculatorThe other way out of this math entirely: move the balance to 0% and see the month the transfer fee pays for itself.
- Debt consolidation loan calculatorCalculatorA single loan against paying this card down at the same rate, not against the naive baseline a lender’s calculator uses.
All 130 calculatorsHow JMM sources and checks its numbersWhat stays free, and what early access would add
More calculators for the same balance
The debt snowball vs avalanche calculator runs every card and loan you carry through the payoff order that actually saves the most, and the balance transfer calculator prices a 0% offer against staying put.