Paying off credit card debt can help you save money and boost your overall financial health. This credit card repayment calculator can help figure out how long it’ll take to pay off your debt and how much you’ll pay in interest.
How to Use the Calculator
Our credit card repayment calculator can help you estimate when to pay off your credit card debt. Not just that, but our helpful debt management tool lets you see how much you’ll need to pay each month based on how much you owe and your interest rate. You’ll also be able to see how much principal versus interest you’ll pay over the lifetime of the debt.
After clicking the Calculate button, you’ll see details of your ideal credit card debt payoff strategy, including:
- The number of months needed to pay off the debt
- The amount you’ll need to pay each month to become debt-free
- Total interest you’ll pay
- Total payment amount, including principal
This debt payoff calculator can help you plan monthly payments by creating a repayment plan. Still, it doesn’t consider other factors — such as your card’s annual fee (if it has one), late-payment fees, or any additional fees you might incur. This calculator also assumes that you won’t use the card to make new purchases.
Cut Credit Card Debt with Balance Transfer Credit Cards
One of the best ways to tackle credit card debt is by consolidating multiple large payments into one, easier-to-manege, smaller payment every month. Balance transfer credit cards are a great way to refinance existing debt and pay it down at a lower rate. Most balance transfer credit cards come with a 0% introductory APR period on balance transfers. This promotional period lets new cardholders transfer their debt and pay off much – if not all – with no additional interest payments.
Learn More: Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards of 2022
Other Debt Repayment Methods
There is more than one way to tackle credit card debt.
Personal loans are another popular way to pay down credit card debt. Sometimes known as a debt consolidation loan, personal loans typically offer lower interest rates than credit cards and provide a streamlined way to pay off multiple cards and consolidate that debt into one, easy-to-manage monthly payment.
Two other methods of debt repayment are the debt snowball and debt avalanche repayment strategies.
Debt Avalanche
The debt avalanche method focuses on paying your debt from the highest interest rate to the smallest, regardless of the balance. By targeting the largest interest rate first and putting extra money towards its monthly payment, you’re paying less overall interest throughout the life of that debt. This debt repayment plan is a long-term strategy in which you won’t see immediate results, but it’ll save you money down the road. Mathematically and rationally, it makes more sense to choose the avalanche method because you save money, and your other balances are unaffected. Aside from making the minimum monthly payments, you’d essentially be ignoring your other balances with either method until it’s time to make each one the focus debt.
Debt Snowball
The debt snowball method of debt management focuses on paying your debt in order from the smallest balance to the highest, regardless of the interest rate. Once your focus debt is paid off, you move on to the next smallest amount and repeat the process. It’s a good idea to take the monthly payment amount for your previous focus debt and apply it to your current amount plus any extra money you’re allocating so that you can accelerate the payoff process. The main appeal of the snowball method is that you’ll see progress quickly. Being able to cross off pesky smaller debt amounts one by one can work wonders for your motivation, therefore, you’re more likely to stay committed to paying off your debt. By the time you reach your last, largest balance, you’ve got plenty of extra dough that you can dedicate to it.
