The minimum payment
It is set to cover the month's interest and a small slice of principal. Paying it keeps the account current; it is not the pace at which the debt ends.
Credit card calculator
What the minimum payment costs you.
How many months and how much interest it takes to clear your card on the minimum, and how far a fixed extra each month moves both.
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01
Your card
Take the figures from your latest statement
How your minimum payment is setCheck your statement: some cards set the minimum as an amount and others as a percentage of the balance. The percentage is what makes the payment fall on its own each month.
02
Your extra payment
Try an amount and watch the contrast
Your estimate
Minimum onlyJun 202934 months
→With the extraDec 202716 months
Interest you save$500.69
18 months earlier
This month's minimum$75.00
Interest on the minimum$903.19
Interest with the extra$402.51
Total paid on the minimum$2,522.19
Total paid with the extra$1,958.51
Charges over the period$119.00
How the balance fallsMinimum onlyWith the extra
Balance at the close of each cycle
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The fixed charge joins the balance before the payment lands, so it earns interest the following month exactly like a purchase.
03
Several debts: in which order
With one monthly budget, the order changes what you pay in interest
Enter each debt with its balance, its rate and the minimum it demands. Below are the two ways to order them: the dearest first, and the smallest first. Both pay every minimum; whatever is left over goes to one debt at a time.
01
02
Interest in total$180.45
Free in9 months
- 1Debt 1$1,500.00 · 36.00%
- 2Debt 2$800.00 · 14.00%
Pays less interest
Interest in total$259.05
Free in9 months
- 1Debt 2$800.00 · 14.00%
- 2Debt 1$1,500.00 · 36.00%
Clears an account sooner
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Paying the dearest first saves you $78.60 in interest. Both finish in the same month. Starting with the smallest clears the first account 3 months sooner.
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Neither one is wrong. Dearest first pays the least interest — that is arithmetic — and smallest first is the one more people keep up, because seeing an account closed early is what keeps the plan going. A plan you finish is worth more than a cheaper one you abandon.
Σ
Of your budget, $120 goes on everybody's minimums and $180 is free to attack one debt at a time. In both, a debt that reaches zero does not free up its minimum: that money joins the next one. It is what makes the plan accelerate towards the end.
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What this does not model: New spending on those accounts, minimums that move with the balance, late fees and promotional rates that expire. All four make the real answer worse, in both orders alike. And this is arithmetic, not a legal rule: there is no norm to cite here.
What makes this estimate accurate
We use declining-balance interest and a 365-day calendar year, the convention credit is quoted with in the country. Your issuer may work the minimum out on the statement balance rather than today's, charge interest from each purchase date, or apply an absolute floor in dollars; always compare against your statement. No figure on this page comes from Salvadoran regulation, so it carries no source verification date.
Check the rates and commissions published by the SSF ↗LOANPILOT CARDS 101
Why the minimum takes so long
Four things explain almost everything in the table above. None of them is a trick: they are all in the contract.Interest on the balance
Interest accrues on what you owe each day, not on the original purchase. That is why lowering the balance early removes more interest than lowering it later.
The statement date
The statement closes on one date and the payment falls due on another. The balance at the close is what earns the period's interest and what sets the minimum.
The order payments are applied in
Payments go to charges and interest first, and only then to principal. An extra paid as an ordinary payment can stop at the interest; ask for it to be applied to principal and check the next statement.