How long does it take to pay off a credit card? The Points Frog credit card payoff calculator works it out month by month. Its starting example is a $5,000 balance at 21.19%, the Federal Reserve's average rate on all credit card accounts at commercial banks in August 2026.
Pay a fixed $200 a month and the card is paid off in 2 years and 10 months, with $1,655 in interest. Pay only a typical minimum, which starts at $139 and shrinks with the balance, and it takes 19 years and 1 month. The interest climbs to $7,782, more than the balance you started with.
Why the minimum takes so long
Each issuer sets its own minimum payment formula, found in the card agreement. A common one is 1% of the balance plus that month's interest, with a floor such as $25. On $5,000 at 21.19%, the first month's interest is about $88. So of a $139 minimum, only about $50 goes to the balance.
As the balance falls, the minimum falls with it. That keeps the payoff slow. After ten years of minimum payments, the calculator still shows $1,497 owed.
Federal rules from the Credit CARD Act of 2009 require card statements to show how long paying only the minimum would take. When that is more than 3 years, the statement must also show the payment that clears the balance in 3 years. For this card, that is $189 a month, with $1,799 in interest.
What the monthly payment does
The payment is the biggest lever. Here is the same $5,000 at 21.19%:
| Monthly payment | Time to pay off | Total interest |
|---|---|---|
| $100 | 10 years, 3 months | $7,253 |
| $150 | 4 years, 3 months | $2,612 |
| $200 | 2 years, 10 months | $1,655 |
| $300 | 1 year, 8 months | $974 |
| $500 | 1 year | $550 |
Going from $100 to $150 a month cuts six years off the payoff and saves more than $4,600 in interest. To be debt-free in 2 years takes $258 a month; in 1 year, $467.
There is also a floor. At 21.19%, the card charges 1.77% of the balance a month, or $88 on $5,000. A payment at or below that never pays the card off, and the calculator warns you when yours does not cover it.
Snowball or avalanche
With several cards, the calculator compares two ways to pay. Both pay every minimum and put the rest of the budget toward one card at a time. When that card is gone, its money rolls to the next. The debt avalanche targets the highest rate first. The debt snowball targets the smallest balance first.
The page's example has three cards totaling $13,500 and a $700 monthly budget. The avalanche is debt-free in 2 years, with $3,248 in interest. The snowball takes 2 years and 1 month and costs $3,602, or $355 more.
What the snowball offers is a faster first win. It clears a $1,500 store card in 5 months, while the avalanche's first payoff takes 1 year and 7 months. The page cites a study of nearly 6,000 people in a debt settlement program (Gal and McShane, 2012). The number of accounts people closed predicted whether they finished better than the dollars they paid.
Paying only the minimums on all three cards, by contrast, would take 25 years and 3 months and cost $21,753 in interest.
What it leaves out
Like the warning on a statement, the calculator assumes you stop using the cards and the rate stays the same. It does not include new purchases, fees or rate changes. A 0% balance transfer or other promotional rate changes the math until the promotion ends. Your issuer's own rules will make your statements differ a little. It is an educational estimate, not financial advice.
Where the figures come from
The 21.19% rate is the Fed's G.19 average for all credit card accounts at commercial banks in August 2026, released October 7, 2026. Accounts that were charged interest averaged 22.36%. A year earlier, the all-accounts rate was 21.39%, and its high since the series began in 1994 was 21.76%, in August 2024. Americans owed $1.26 trillion on credit cards in the second quarter of 2026, according to the New York Fed.
Use it on your own site
The credit card payoff calculator is free to embed on a blog or site with copy-and-paste code, and it carries no ads or tracking. Here is how to embed it.
Source: Federal Reserve G.19 Consumer Credit, August 2026 rates, released October 7, 2026; New York Fed Household Debt and Credit Report, second quarter of 2026. Figures are educational estimates, not financial advice.