Credit Card Minimum Payment Calculator
↻ Updated 2026Paying only the minimum is a trap — the payment shrinks as your balance does. See how many years and how much interest a minimum-only payoff really costs.
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How to read a minimum-only payoff
At the defaults a $6,000 balance at 22.9% takes 18 years 9 months to clear on a 3% minimum, and costs $9,084.26 in interest — 151% of what you borrowed. The same first cheque of $180, simply held flat instead of allowed to shrink, clears the card in 4 years 6 months for $3,626.31. The trap isn't the size of the first payment; it's that the payment shrinks as fast as the balance does.
Why a shrinking minimum payment stretches out forever
A minimum payment is recalculated every cycle from whatever you currently owe: it's a percentage of the balance, or a fixed floor, whichever is larger. That single design decision is the whole story. As the balance falls the payment falls with it, so the pace of repayment decays month after month — you never get the acceleration you'd get from holding the payment still.
Whether it converges at all depends on a race between two percentages. Your balance grows at APR ÷ 12 each month and shrinks by the minimum percentage. At the default 22.9% APR that's 1.908% a month. A 3% rule beats it and the card pays off. A 1% rule loses to it outright — the payment doesn't even cover the interest, the balance grows, and the page says "Never". A 2% rule wins by less than a tenth of a percentage point, which is technically progress and practically not: the payoff exists, it just sits beyond the model's 100-year horizon.
monthly rate = APR ÷ 12 repeat each month: interest = balance × monthly rate balance = balance + interest minimum = max(pct × balance, floor) ← recalculated every month balance = balance − minimum converges only while pct > monthly rate, or once the floor takes over below balance = floor ÷ pct
- pct
- The minimum-payment percentage your issuer applies to the balance — 1–3% is the common US range; it must exceed APR ÷ 12 for the percentage stage to make progress at all
- floor
- The smallest payment the card will ask for, in dollars — typically $25–$40; it rescues the payoff once the percentage stage has slowed to a crawl
- monthly rate
- APR ÷ 12 — what the balance grows by before any payment — 1.908% on the default 22.9% APR, against the default 3% minimum
- minimum
- This month's required payment, recomputed from this month's balance — falls every month — the mechanism this entire page exists to show
- balance
- What you owe, after interest and before the payment — assumed to take no new purchases; a single spend restarts the whole curve
The floor is what eventually saves you, and it does it by accident. Once the balance drops below floor ÷ pct — $833.33 at the default 3% rule with a $25 floor — the percentage stops mattering and the payment stops shrinking. From that point you're effectively making a fixed payment, and the last stretch finally moves. Everything before it is the slow part: at the defaults the payment is down to $92.77 by month 60 and pinned at the $25 floor from month 174 onward.
Two notes on the model. Issuers apply the percentage to your statement balance, before that cycle's interest is added; this tool applies it after, making its minimum slightly larger and kinder than a real card's. And the other common industry formula — roughly 1% of the balance plus that cycle's interest and fees — always amortizes by construction, because interest is covered before the 1% touches principal. Which formula your card uses is in your agreement, and it matters more than the APR.
Worked examples
Example: $6,000 at 22.9% with a 3% minimum
The calculator's defaults. A 3% minimum with a $25 floor against a card charging 1.908% a month.
| Month 1 interest$6,000 × 22.9% ÷ 12 | $114.50 |
| Month 1 minimum3% of the post-interest balance | $183.44 |
| Month 1 principal$183.44 − $114.50 — 38 cents on the dollar | $68.94 |
| Payoff time225 months | 18 yr 9 mo |
| Total interest151% of the balance | $9,084.26 |
| Total repaidon $6,000 borrowed | $15,084.26 |
| Payment by month 60it halved while you weren't looking | $92.77 |
| Payment by month 180down to the floor | $25.00 |
| Fixed $180/mo insteadsame first cheque, 54 months | 4 yr 6 mo · $3,626.31 |
Same first payment of $180. One version takes 4 years 6 months and costs $3,626.31; the other takes 18 years 9 months and costs $9,084.26. The only difference is whether the payment is allowed to shrink. Paying the minimum means writing a cheque for $92.77 in year five and $25 in year fifteen — the issuer asks for less precisely as you become more able to pay, and the $5,457.95 gap is what that costs.
Example: drop the rule to 2%, then 1%, and the payoff disappears
Move the minimum-payment rule slider down from 3%. Same $6,000, same 22.9% APR, same $25 floor. Two percentage points separate a long payoff from no payoff at all.
| At 2% — month 1 minimum2% of the post-interest balance | $122.29 |
| At 2% — month 1 principal$122.29 − $114.50 — six cents on the dollar | $7.79 |
| At 2% — payoff timepast the model's 1,200-month horizon | 100+ yr |
| At 2% — still owing at year 100of the original $6,000 | $1,262.06 |
| At 2% — fixed $120/mo insteadsame first cheque | 13 yr 8 mo · $13,569.40 |
| At 1% — month 1 minimum1% of $6,000, above the $25 floor | $60.00 |
| At 1% — month 1 principal$60.00 doesn't cover $114.50 of interest | None |
| At 1% — payoff timethe balance grows every month | Never |
At 2% the headline reads 100+ yr. The rule technically beats 1.908% a month, so the balance does fall — by 0.13% a month. It takes 114 years, and the model stops caring at 100. Hold that same $120 flat and the card clears in 13 years 8 months, which is the whole lesson in one slider. At 1% the answer changes in kind rather than degree: the payment is smaller than the interest, so the balance is larger next month than this month, and the gap never closes. That's negative amortization — paying every bill on time forever would leave you owing more than you started with. Reg Z Appendix M1 requires issuers to disclose exactly this case, which tells you it happens on real cards.
Frequently asked questions
How is the minimum payment on a credit card calculated?
Two formulas dominate US cards, and they behave very differently. The first is a flat percentage of your statement balance — commonly 1% to 3% — subject to a dollar floor of $25 to $40, which is what this calculator models. The second is a smaller percentage, typically 1%, plus that cycle's interest and fees.
The second always amortizes: interest is paid off the top, so the whole 1% reduces principal. The first only works while the percentage beats your monthly rate — set the rule slider on this page to 1% against a 22.9% APR and you can watch it fail. Whichever your issuer uses is disclosed in your cardholder agreement. And if the balance is smaller than the floor, the minimum is simply the balance.
What happens if you only pay the minimum payment on your credit card?
Mechanically: nothing bad and nothing good. You stay current, you avoid a late fee, your on-time payment is reported to the bureaus — and the balance barely moves. At the defaults on this page you'd repay $15,084.26 on $6,000 over nearly nineteen years.
The compounding problem is that the minimum keeps falling, so the plan gets slower the longer it runs. Federal regulators noticed: the joint FFIEC guidance issued as OCC Bulletin 2003-1 told card lenders they were expected to set minimum payments that "amortize the current balance over a reasonable period of time", which is what pushed much of the industry toward the 1%-plus-interest formula. Cards that still use a flat percentage against a high APR are the ones this page's rule slider illustrates.
Why does my credit card statement say it will take 3 years to pay off?
That box is required by the CARD Act, implemented in Regulation Z § 1026.7(b)(12) with the calculation set out in Appendix M1. It shows two things: how long your balance would take at minimum payments only, and — separately — the higher monthly payment that would clear it in three years. The three-year figure is an alternative on offer, not a prediction.
The regulation is unusually candid about the failure case. It specifies what an issuer must disclose when "negative or no amortization" occurs — that is, when the minimum payment would never clear the balance at all. The rule was drafted knowing that a minimum-only payoff sometimes has no finish line, which is the "Never" this page reports when you set the minimum rule below the monthly interest rate.
Does paying only the minimum hurt your credit score?
Not directly — an on-time minimum payment is an on-time payment, and payment history is the largest component of a FICO score. The damage is indirect and arrives through utilisation: paying the minimum keeps the balance high against your credit limit, and amounts owed is roughly 30% of a FICO score.
So minimum-only payments protect the biggest scoring factor while quietly degrading the second-biggest, for as long as the balance sits there. The interest cost on this page is the more expensive half of that trade by a wide margin.
How long does it take to pay off a credit card with minimum payments?
Longer than almost anyone estimates, and the answer is dominated by the minimum rule rather than by the balance. On $6,000 at 22.9%, a 3% rule takes 18 years 9 months. A 2% rule on the same card takes over a century. A 1% rule never finishes at all.
The distance between those is two percentage points in a formula most people have never read. If you want the number for your own card, the minimum rule in your agreement matters more than the APR — and holding your payment at today's minimum instead of letting it fall is worth more than any rate you're likely to negotiate. The debt payoff calculator does the same comparison across several debts at once.
Where this model is kinder than a real card
Every simplification below points the same way: a real minimum-only payoff is worse than this page shows, not better.
- The percentage is applied after interest, not before — This tool adds the month's interest to the balance and then takes the percentage, which makes each minimum slightly larger than your issuer's — they apply the percentage to the statement balance struck before interest posts. A real card asks for a little less and therefore takes a little longer.
- One formula, when the industry uses several — The flat percentage plus floor is modelled here. A card using 1% of the balance plus interest and fees behaves completely differently — it always amortizes — and would never produce the "Never" result at any rule setting. This page cannot tell you which one you have.
- No fees, no new purchases, and a fixed monthly rate — Real minimums include past-due amounts and fees, and real balances grow when you use the card. The penalty APR a missed payment can trigger would push a marginal payoff straight into the non-amortizing zone. Interest is also charged once a month at APR ÷ 12, while issuers use a daily rate and usually compound it — and card APRs are variable, which matters over a nineteen-year payoff.
- "100+ yr" is a display limit; "Never" is a finding — The two are different and the page keeps them apart. "Never" means the minimum is smaller than the month's interest, so the balance grows without bound — that result is real at any horizon. "100+ yr" means the balance does amortize but hasn't cleared within the model's 1,200-month simulation; a payoff exists somewhere beyond it, just not on any timescale worth quoting.
- ·Standard loan amortization formulas
Rates, brackets and limits here are checked against primary sources. If a number still looks off, email support@realmoneyiq.com and we'll review and fix it.
RealMoneyIQ provides free educational calculators, not financial, tax, investment or legal advice. Results are estimates based on the assumptions you enter and publicly published rates; your actual outcome will differ. Always confirm decisions with a licensed professional who knows your full situation.