How long paying the minimum really takes.

Paying only the minimum on a credit card is a financial trap. At typical 2% minimum on a 20%+ APR balance, interest eats most of each payment and the debt shrinks by almost nothing. This calculator shows exactly how long and how expensive paying minimum actually is.

A 5,000 balance at 22% APR with 2% minimum payments (with 25 floor) takes around 30 years to clear. Total paid: 13,000+. Interest alone: 8,000+ - nearly 1.6 times the original balance. The 'minimum payment' marketing hides the real trap: you pay for decades and the principal barely moves.

The visualiser makes this vivid. Anyone carrying a credit card balance while paying minimums should run this calculator and see the timeline. The usual response is 'increase payments immediately' - even doubling to 4% monthly cuts the total cost by 60% and the timeline by two-thirds.

Run it with sensible defaults

Using credit card balance of 5,000, annual interest rate of 22%, minimum payment percentage of 2%, the calculation works out to 50+ years. Nudge the inputs toward your own situation and the output recalculates instantly. The defaults are meant as a starting point, not a recommendation.

The levers in this calculation

The inputs — Credit Card Balance, Annual Interest Rate (APR), and Minimum Payment Percentage — do not pull with equal force. Not every input has equal weight. Flip one at a time toward extreme values to feel which ones move the needle most for your situation.

How the math works

Simulates month-by-month: payment = max(balance × minimum%, 25 floor). Interest = balance × annual rate / 12. New balance = old balance + interest - payment. Continues until balance ≤ 0.01 or 50 years. The working is transparent — you can verify every step yourself in the formula section below. No black box, no opaque "proprietary model".

Why payoff plans work

Debt feels overwhelming when it's an abstract total. Break it into a payoff date and a monthly figure and the problem becomes finite — you can see the finish line. That visibility is what this tool provides, and for many people it's the difference between dithering and acting.

What this doesn't capture

Real payoff journeys include missed payments, fee changes, balance transfers, and promotional rates that reset. The calculation assumes a steady plan; reality is rarely that clean. Use the figure as the best-case plan against which actual progress gets measured.