Debt Payoff Calculator
Calculate how long it takes to pay off credit card or loan debt at a fixed monthly payment, total interest paid, and how much faster you could be debt-free by paying more.
Debt Balance & Payment Parameters
Debt-free by April 2030 at $200/month.
Paying $250/month instead would make you debt-free 12 months sooner and save $812 in interest.
Credit Card & Loan Debt Payoff Time Mathematics
Debt payoff calculator computes how many months to become debt-free, total interest paid, and payoff date from your balance, APR, and fixed monthly payment.
Each month, interest accrues on the remaining balance at the monthly rate (APR / 12), then the fixed payment is applied — this formula solves for the number of months (n) it takes a fixed payment (P) to fully pay off a balance (B) at monthly rate (r), assuming the payment exceeds the monthly interest charge.
- 1Enter your current balance and the APR (interest rate) on the account.
- 2Enter the fixed amount you plan to pay every month.
- 3View how many months until the balance reaches zero, the payoff date, and total interest paid over that time.
- 4See how much sooner you'd be debt-free — and how much interest you'd save — by paying $50 more per month.
A credit card has a $6,000 balance at 22% APR, paid down with a fixed $200 monthly payment.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Enter your current balance, APR, and the fixed amount you plan to pay each month — the calculator simulates the balance shrinking month by month as interest accrues and payments are applied, and reports the exact number of months to reach zero.
If your payment is close to (or below) the interest charged that month, almost none of it reduces the principal — at high APRs like 20-25%, minimum payments on credit cards are often just enough to cover interest, which is why balances can take years to clear.
Total interest is the difference between everything you pay over the life of the debt and the original balance — this calculator adds up interest accrued every single month until the balance hits zero to give you the exact total.
Yes — because interest is charged on the remaining balance, every extra dollar of principal paid off early avoids interest charges on that dollar for every remaining month, which is why even a modest $50/month increase can cut months (and often hundreds of dollars of interest) off a payoff timeline.
The "avalanche" method (paying extra toward the highest-APR debt first) minimizes total interest paid mathematically; the "snowball" method (paying off the smallest balance first) pays more interest overall but builds momentum through faster psychological wins — use this calculator on each individual debt to compare.
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