How long will it take to pay off a credit card?

The answer depends almost entirely on what you pay each month, and the payment the card asks for is designed to keep you paying for a long time. Take a $6,000 balance at 24% APR with a minimum of the month's interest plus 1% of the balance, never less than $25. Paying only that minimum takes about 20 years and 9 months and costs about $10,700 in interest. A fixed $250 a month clears it in 34 months for about $2,260.

Why minimums shrink

A card's minimum payment is usually a percentage of the balance, often with the month's interest added, and a dollar floor. Each issuer sets its own formula in the cardholder agreement. Because the payment is tied to the balance, it falls as the balance falls. In the example, the first minimum is $181.20, of which $120 is interest. By the fifth year it is under $100, and by then most of each payment still goes to interest.

That is the whole mechanism. A payment that shrinks with the debt never gets ahead of it, so the last stretch of the balance is paid off very slowly. A payment that stays the same does the opposite: as the interest falls, more of each payment goes to the balance.

Some formulas never finish at all. If the minimum is only a percentage of the balance, and that percentage is close to the monthly interest rate, the balance barely moves; lower still, it grows. New charges have the same effect: a minimum that only covers what you add each month leaves the balance where it is.

What your statement already tells you

Federal rules require a payoff box on most credit card statements. It starts with a "Minimum Payment Warning: If you make only the minimum payment each period, you will pay more in interest and it will take you longer to pay off your balance". It then shows how long paying only the minimum would take and the total you would pay. "If the minimum payment repayment estimate is less than 2 years, the card issuer must disclose the estimate in months." Otherwise it is rounded to whole years.

Unless the minimum alone takes three years or less, the box also shows "The estimated monthly payment for repayment in 36 months", the total at that payment, and the saving. For the $6,000 example that is about $235 a month, $8,474 in total, and a saving of about $8,210 against paying the minimum.

The figures assume nothing changes: they are "based on the assumption that only minimum payments are made and no other amounts are added to the balance". And if the minimum would never clear the balance, the box says so instead: "we estimate you will never pay off the balance shown on this statement because your payment will be less than the interest charged each month".

The credit card payoff calculator reproduces this comparison on your numbers, adds a fixed payment of your choosing, and works out the payment that clears the card by a date you set.

Close, not exact

Calculators like this one charge a month's interest at the APR divided by 12. Issuers charge a daily rate on the average daily balance, which moves with every purchase and payment, so a statement will differ a little. The rules for the payoff box accept the same simplification: "A monthly or daily periodic rate may be assumed."

Carrying a balance costs you the grace period

Most cards give a grace period on purchases: pay the statement in full by the due date and new purchases are not charged interest. Carry a balance, and you lose it. The CFPB: "If you lose your grace period by not paying your balance in full by the due date, you will be charged interest on the unpaid portion of the balance. You will also be charged interest on purchases in the new billing cycle starting on the date each purchase is made."

Getting it back takes more than one good month: "If you pay in full some months, and not in other months, you may lose your grace period for the month that you don't pay in full and for the month after." So while you are paying a card down, new spending on it costs interest from day one. Using a different card, or cash, for everyday spending keeps the paydown clean.

The main ways out

A fixed payment. The simplest fix is to pick an amount and keep paying it as the minimum falls. Any amount above the minimum helps, and the payment that clears the card in three years is printed on your statement.

Avalanche or snowball, with more than one card. Pay every minimum, then put the extra on one card: the highest rate first (avalanche) or the smallest balance first (snowball). The avalanche costs less interest; the snowball gives quicker wins. The snowball or avalanche calculator compares them on your balances.

A balance transfer. A 0% offer stops the interest for a fixed period, for a fee, usually a percentage of the amount moved. It works when the payment clears the balance before the offer ends; the balance transfer calculator finds that payment.

A consolidation loan. A fixed-rate personal loan replaces a shrinking minimum with a fixed payment and an end date. It saves money if the rate is lower and the term is not much longer; the debt consolidation calculator shows both.

Each of these works only if the card stops growing. A transfer or a loan that clears the card, followed by new spending on it, leaves two debts where there was one.

Sources: 12 CFR 1026.7(b)(12), repayment disclosures on credit card statements, and Appendix M1 to Part 1026, how the estimates are calculated (Regulation Z, eCFR as of 9 October 2026). CFPB, What is a grace period for a credit card?. Payoff figures computed with this site's own code.