Credit Card Minimum Payment Calculator
Paying only the minimum on $5,000 at 22% takes 19 years 2 months and costs $8,099.70 in interest. That is with a minimum of 1% of the balance plus interest and a $25 floor.
Last reviewed
What the minimum costs
Time to pay off
19 years 2 months
Interest
$8,099.70
First minimum
$141.67
Paying only the minimum, your $5,000 balance takes 230 payments, or 19 years 2 months, and costs $8,099.70 in interest.
Your first minimum is $141.67, and it falls with the balance until the $25 floor sets it from payment 174.
Keeping $141.67 every month instead clears it in 58 payments and costs $4,978.36 less interest at the same 22%.
Your statement's warning box would show 19 years and a total of $13,100, and a 3-year payment of $191.
Your card
- interest = $5,000.00 × 22% ÷ 12 ≈ $91.67
- minimum = 1% × $5,000.00 + $91.67 = $141.67
- balance after = $5,000.00 + $91.67 − $141.67 = $4,950.00
- floor from payment 174: 1% × $878.74 + $16.11 ≈ $24.90, less than the $25.00 floor
- interest over 230 payments = $8,099.70
- 230 payments = 19 years 2 months
What you owe: only the minimum or your first payment kept
Each minimum payment and its interest
Paying only the minimum, year by year
| Year | You pay | Interest | To the balance | Owed at year end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,609.54 | $1,041.46 | $568.08 | $4,431.92 |
| 2 | $1,426.68 | $923.13 | $503.55 | $3,928.37 |
| 3 | $1,264.59 | $818.26 | $446.33 | $3,482.04 |
| 4 | $1,120.91 | $725.30 | $395.61 | $3,086.43 |
| 5 | $993.53 | $642.86 | $350.67 | $2,735.76 |
| 6 | $880.68 | $569.86 | $310.82 | $2,424.94 |
| 7 | $780.62 | $505.11 | $275.51 | $2,149.43 |
| 8 | $691.92 | $447.71 | $244.21 | $1,905.22 |
| 9 | $613.31 | $396.85 | $216.46 | $1,688.76 |
| 10 | $543.62 | $351.75 | $191.87 | $1,496.89 |
| 11 | $481.86 | $311.80 | $170.06 | $1,326.83 |
| 12 | $427.12 | $276.37 | $150.75 | $1,176.08 |
| 13 | $378.59 | $244.98 | $133.61 | $1,042.47 |
| 14 | $335.56 | $217.13 | $118.43 | $924.04 |
| 15 | $303.32 | $192.26 | $111.06 | $812.98 |
| 16 | $300.00 | $165.85 | $134.15 | $678.83 |
| 17 | $300.00 | $133.19 | $166.81 | $512.02 |
| 18 | $300.00 | $92.54 | $207.46 | $304.56 |
| 19 | $300.00 | $42.03 | $257.97 | $46.59 |
| 20 | $47.85 | $1.26 | $46.59 | $0.00 |
In year 1 you pay $1,609.54, and $1,041.46 of it is interest. From year 16 the $25 floor sets every payment but the last, and the interest in each falls from $14.90 to $0.85.
Every monthly payment
Show every monthly payment
| Payment no. | Minimum paid | Interest | To the balance | Owed after |
|---|
Ways to pay it off
| How you pay | Time | Interest | Interest saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Only the minimum (your plan) | 19 yr 2 mo | $8,099.70 | — |
| The minimum + $10.00 | 12 yr 6 mo | $5,747.02 | $2,352.68 |
| The minimum + $25.00 | 8 yr 5 mo | $4,110.90 | $3,988.80 |
| The minimum + $50.00 | 5 yr 7 mo | $2,829.96 | $5,269.74 |
| The minimum + $100.00 | 3 yr 4 mo | $1,766.59 | $6,333.11 |
| Your first minimum, $141.67, every month | 4 yr 10 mo | $3,121.34 | $4,978.36 |
| The 3-year payment, $191, every month | 3 yr | $1,873.62 | $6,226.08 |
Adding $25 to each minimum cuts the payoff from 19 years 2 months to 8 years 5 months and saves $3,988.80 of interest at the same 22%. Keeping your first minimum every month clears it in 4 years 10 months, 14 years 4 months sooner. Paying the 3-year payment, the last of the 36 payments is $188.62.
Your statement's Minimum Payment Warning
| If you pay each month | You pay it off in about | And pay in all |
|---|---|---|
| Only the minimum payment | 19 years | $13,100 |
| $191 | 3 years | $6,874 (savings $6,226) |
The 3-year total is 36 payments of $190.95, rounded after, so it is $6,874, not 36 × $191. The savings, $6,226, are the first total less the second.
How credit card minimum payments work
Your card's minimum payment comes from a formula in your cardholder agreement. Take 1% of the balance plus the month's interest. On $5,000 at 22%, the first month's interest is $91.67, so the first minimum is $50.00 plus $91.67, or $141.67. Only the $50.00 comes off what you owe.
Next month the balance is smaller, so the minimum is too: $140.25. By payment 36 it is $99.65. The payment shrinks as fast as the debt does. Each one pays off 1% of a smaller balance, which is why the last dollars take so long.
Why the APR changes the cost more than the time
With a minimum of 1% plus interest, the 1% sets how fast the balance falls, and the APR sets what you pay on the way. At 0%, the same $5,000 still takes 169 payments, or 14 years 1 month. At 15% it takes 17 years 11 months and $5,381.94 of interest. At 30% it takes 20 years 5 months and $11,268.34. Doubling the rate from 15% to 30% adds 30 payments, but it more than doubles the interest.
Where the dollar floor takes over
Near the end, 1% plus interest falls below the $25 floor, and you pay the floor instead. At 22% that happens once the balance is $882.27 or less. $25 ÷ (1% + 22% ÷ 12) is $882.35, but the 1% and the interest are each rounded to the cent before they are added. On the default card the floor starts at payment 174. So the last 57 payments are the floor's: 56 of $25 and a final one of $22.85. A higher floor ends the debt sooner. With a $40 floor, paying only the minimum takes 15 years 4 months and costs $640.07 less.
When the interest passes what you owed
In the first year you pay $1,609.54, and $1,041.46 of it is interest. Only $568.08 comes off the balance. Half of the $5,000 is still owed after payment 69. By payment 79, 6 years 7 months in, the interest you have paid adds up to more than the $5,000 you started with.
Flat percent minimums
A flat percent minimum has the interest inside it. At 22% a month's interest is 1.83% of the balance, so a flat 2% leaves only 0.17% to pay it down. The first payment looks smaller, $100.00, but paying only the minimum takes 968 payments, or 80 years 8 months, and $43,417.39 of interest. On $5,000 at 24%, a flat 2% only matches the month's interest, so the balance never falls. Above 24% it does not even cover the interest.
Video walkthrough
A 3-minute walkthrough of how long paying only the minimum on a credit card takes, and what keeping your first payment saves.
Read the transcript
How long the minimum takes
0:00 If you pay only the minimum on a credit card, how long until it's paid off?
0:05 On $5,000 at 22% APR, it takes 19 years 2 months.
0:12 Over those years, you'd pay about $8,100 in interest.
0:17 That's more than you owed in the first place.
Where your first payment goes
0:20 Your first minimum is about $142.
0:24 Most of it is interest.
0:26 Only $50 comes off what you owe.
0:29 Here's why.
0:30 This card's minimum is 1% of the balance, plus the month's interest.
0:34 So the interest is paid first, and the debt shrinks by a sliver.
0:39 The next month you owe a bit less, so the minimum is a bit less too.
0:43 Each payment is tied to what you still owe, so for years, each one is smaller than the one before.
Why the payoff slows down
0:50 So why does it take so long?
0:52 Here is every minimum, with the interest inside it.
0:56 Both lines fall together, so only a thin gap goes to the debt each month.
1:01 Near the end, the minimum drops to the card's $25 floor.
1:06 From payment 174, you pay that each month, and the last payment is a little less.
1:12 By payment 79, the interest you've paid adds up to more than you first owed.
1:17 And you're not even halfway through.
Keep your first payment
1:20 There's a simple fix.
1:22 Keep paying your first minimum, about $142, every month, even as your bill asks for less.
1:30 Now more of each payment goes to the debt, and the balance falls fast.
1:34 You're done after 58 payments, not 230.
1:38 At the same rate, that saves about $5,000 in interest.
1:43 Adding a little to each minimum helps as well.
1:46 The page's table of ways to pay shows how much each one saves.
Check your statement's warning box
1:51 Your statement must show a warning box about this.
1:55 Regulation Z sets its first line, word for word.
1:59 It warns that paying only the minimum costs more and takes longer.
2:04 Under it, the box shows the time and the total you'd pay with only the minimum.
2:09 For this card, that's 19 years and $13,100.
2:14 It also shows the payment that clears the card in 3 years: $191 a month here.
2:21 Your card company may work its numbers a little differently.
2:25 Its time still counts as right if it's within 2 months of Regulation Z's method.
Try your own card
2:31 To check your own card, enter the balance and APR from your statement.
2:36 Say you owe $3,000.
2:39 The answer changes as you type, and here the minimum takes 15 years.
2:44 Then pick your card's formula from your agreement.
2:47 On the first card, a flat 2% minimum starts lower, at $100.
2:53 But it would take 80 years 8 months.
2:55 Every table can go to a spreadsheet, and a copied link brings your numbers back later.
3:01 So learn your card's formula, keep your first payment if you can, and check the box on each statement.
3:07 Run your own card at fastcalc.us.
Minimum payment formulas
r = APR ÷ 12 interest = balance × r, rounded to the cent plus interest: minimum = the larger of the floor and p × balance + interest flat percent: minimum = the larger of the floor and p × balance payment = balance + interest if the floor is at least the balance; otherwise the smaller of the minimum and balance + interest new balance = balance + interest − payment; repeat until it is $0 3-year payment = balance × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)^−36), rounded to the cent r monthly rate · p percent of the balance · floor the dollar floor
Worked examples
A minimum of 2% plus interest. Say your agreement takes 2% of the balance plus interest, with the same $25 floor. On $5,000 at 22%, the first minimum is $191.67, and paying only the minimum takes 137 payments, or 11 years 5 months, and $4,228.61 of interest. Here your statement's box skips the 3-year row. Its 3-year payment, $191 in whole dollars, is less than the $191.67 you already pay.
A small balance with a higher floor. Say you owe $600 and your floor is $35. The floor sets every payment from the start, so you pay $35 a month for 20 months and $26.96 at the end. That is 21 payments and $126.96 of interest. The box shows 21 months, because the time is under 2 years, and it has no 3-year row.
A balance the minimum pays at once. Say you owe $10.00. With the month's 18 cents of interest you owe $10.18, less than the $25 floor, so the first minimum is the whole $10.18. Your statement then shows no warning box at all. The same holds for $24.80, though with its interest of $0.45 you owe $25.25: the floor is at least the balance, so the whole balance is due.
Check the warning box on your statement
Your statement has to show a box near the minimum payment due. Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.7(b)(12), gives its first line: "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." Under it come the time and the total cost of paying only the minimum, and the payment that would clear the balance in 3 years. Appendix M1 says how your card company works them out. It assumes "Only minimum monthly payments are made each month" and that you add nothing new to the card.
The time is given in months under 2 years and in whole years after that. The default card takes 230 payments, 19 years 2 months, so the box says 19 years. A half year rounds up: the official comment to 12 CFR 1026.7(b)(12)(i)(F) shows 2 years 6 months to 3 years 5 months as 3 years. Your card company rounds every amount in the box to whole dollars, or every amount to cents. In dollars, the default box shows $13,100 for the minimum and $191 a month for 3 years.
The 3-year payment is worked in cents first. On the default card it is $190.95, so 36 of them come to $6,874.20, shown as $6,874 and not as 36 × $191. The savings line is then $13,100 less $6,874, or $6,226. The box leaves out the 3-year row in two cases that apply to a card like this. One is when the time rounds to 3 years or less. The other is when the rounded 3-year payment is less than your minimum due. A third case is an account that also has a fixed repayment part, paid off in less than 36 months.
Appendix M2 works one example in full. A $1,000 balance has three parts at different rates: $500 at a 0% promotional rate that later becomes 17%, $250 at 17% and $250 at 21%. The minimum is "2 percent of the outstanding balance or $20, whichever is greater." Worked the way the appendix's own program does it, paying only the minimum takes 94 months, so the box says 8 years and $1,872. The 3-year payment is $35 a month, or $1,276 in all, so the savings are $596.
Your card company's figure may differ from this page by a month or two. Appendix M1 counts its estimate as accurate when it is "not more than 2 months above or below" the time its method gives.
When your card works differently
If you keep using the card
The box assumes you stop using the card. The CFPB's answer on the 3-year box says the amounts "do not take into consideration any future purchases." New charges can stop the balance from falling at all. On the default card, 1% of $5,000 is $50.00. If you charge $50.00 a month and pay only the minimum, the $50.00 you pay off is the $50.00 you add, and the balance stays at $5,000.
If your card adds interest each day
The CFPB's answer on how card companies work out interest notes that "Many credit card companies calculate the interest you owe daily, based on your average daily account balance." This page uses one-twelfth of the APR each month, which Appendix M1 allows. If interest at 22% ÷ 365 were added to the balance every day of a month 365 ÷ 12 days long, a month would cost 1.85% of the balance, not 1.83%. The default card would then take 231 payments, one more, and $8,176.88 of interest, which is $77.18 more. The daily interest calculator shows one day's interest on a balance at its APR.
If your minimum does not cover the interest
Say your card's minimum is a flat 1.5% of the balance. On $5,000 at 22% that is $75.00, less than the $91.67 of interest, so the balance grows. After 12 payments you would owe $5,203.71. Under 12 CFR 1026.7(b)(12)(ii)(A), your statement must then warn that "you will never pay off the balance shown on this statement because your payment will be less than the interest charged each month." It still gives the payment that clears the balance in 3 years, $191 a month here. The calculator shows this case too: choose a flat percent of 1.5%.
If part of your balance has another APR
Cash advances, balance transfers and promotional rates can each carry their own APR. For the box, Appendix M1 assumes your payments go to the lower-rate balances first. In the Appendix M2 example above, the promotional part is paid off in month 29, the middle-rate part in month 51 and the highest-rate part in month 94. Anything you pay above the minimum works the other way. Under 12 CFR 1026.53(a), your card company "must allocate the excess amount first to the balance with the highest annual percentage rate." The credit card payment allocation calculator shows the split, and the balance transfer calculator prices a 0% offer.
If your minimum adds fees
Appendix M1 leaves fees out of the box: it assumes no "new purchases, transactions, fees, charges or other activity." If your agreement adds a fee to the minimum, such as one-twelfth of a $95 yearly fee, each minimum is $7.92 higher. That money goes to the fee, so none of the $7.92 shortens the time it takes to pay off your balance.
Assumptions and limits
- You pay exactly the minimum, on time, every month, and you add nothing to the card: no purchases, cash advances, fees or penalty APR.
- Interest each month is the balance × APR ÷ 12, rounded to the cent, with your payment counted on the last day of the month. Appendix M1 allows both choices, and its own sample rounds to the cent.
- The percent part of the minimum and the month's interest are each rounded to the cent, then added. Appendix M2's program runs a flat 2%, but a comment in it suggests a percent-plus-rate form, which would round their sum once; on the default card that gives $8,099.55 of interest, 15 cents less, and the same 230 payments.
- One APR applies to the whole balance and does not change. A promotional rate, a variable rate or a second balance at another APR is not modeled.
- The 1%, the 2% and the $25 floor are examples. Use the formula in your cardholder agreement.
- The balance can be $1 to $100,000 and the APR up to 99.99%. A payoff that would take more than 100 years is refused, with the field to change.
- When the floor is at least the month's balance, the whole balance and that month's interest are paid, so a last minimum can be more than the floor. Appendix M2's program pays the floor unless it is more than the balance plus interest, which can leave a little, no more than that month's interest, for one more payment.
These figures are estimates for learning and planning, not financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Terms of use.
What to do about a minimum-only balance
Keep paying your first minimum. If you pay $141.67 every month instead of a minimum that falls, the default card is gone in 4 years 10 months. The credit card payoff calculator shows the payoff for any fixed payment you choose.
Check this month's interest on your statement. On $5,000 at 22% it should be close to $91.67; a figure well above it can mean a higher APR or a second balance. The credit card interest calculator works one month's charge from your average daily balance.
Look for a lower rate. At 15% the same minimum path costs $2,717.76 less than at 22%. The balance transfer calculator weighs a transfer fee against the interest a promotional rate saves while you keep paying $141.67 a month.
If the minimum is more than you can pay, call your card company before the due date. The CFPB's page on unpaid card bills says "Many card companies are willing to work with you to change your payment if you’re facing a financial emergency." A missed payment can bring a late fee on top of the $141.67 due. With more than one card, the debt payoff calculator orders them, and the debt consolidation calculator compares one loan for all of them.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to pay off a credit card with minimum payments?
On $5,000 at 22%, with a minimum of 1% plus interest and a $25 floor, it takes 230 payments: 19 years 2 months. You pay $8,099.70 of interest, more than the balance itself. The time depends mostly on the formula, so check yours before you trust any estimate.
How is the minimum payment on a credit card calculated?
Your cardholder agreement gives the formula. One kind is a percent of the balance plus the month's interest, with a dollar floor. At 1% plus interest on $2,000 at 22%, that is $20.00 plus $36.67, or $56.67. A flat formula takes a percent of the balance with the interest inside it: a flat 2% of $2,000 would be $40.00.
What is the minimum payment on a $5,000 credit card?
It depends on the formula and the APR. At 22% it is $141.67 with 1% plus interest, $191.67 with 2% plus interest and $100.00 with a flat 2%. The smallest first payment is not the cheapest: the flat 2% takes far longer to pay off.
What is the minimum payment on a $10,000 credit card?
At 22% with 1% plus interest, the first minimum is $283.33. Paying only the minimum takes 299 payments, or 24 years 11 months, and $17,266.57 of interest. The payment that would clear it in 3 years is $381.90.
What is the minimum payment on a $3,000 credit card?
At 22% with 1% plus interest and a $25 floor, it is $85.00: $30.00 of balance and $55.00 of interest. Paying only that falling minimum takes 15 years and $4,433.02 of interest.
What does the 36-month payment on my credit card statement mean?
It is the same payment each month that would clear your balance in 3 years if you stopped using the card. On $5,000 at 22% it is $190.95, or $191 in whole dollars. The CFPB's answer on the 3-year box adds: "You do not have to pay any more than the minimum amount shown on your statement."
How much more than the minimum payment should I pay?
Any fixed extra helps most at the start, when the balance is largest. On the default card, $25 more each month cuts the payoff to 101 payments, and $100 more cuts it to 40. Keeping your first $141.67 every month takes 58.
Sources
- Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.7(b)(12), the Minimum Payment Warning on a card statement (CFPB text) (current version)
- Regulation Z, Appendix M1 to Part 1026, repayment disclosures (CFPB text) (current version)
- Regulation Z, Appendix M2 to Part 1026, sample calculations of repayment disclosures (CFPB text) (current version)
- Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.53, allocation of payments (CFPB text) (current version)
- CFPB, A box on my credit card bill says that I will pay off the balance in three years (page reviewed Jan 22, 2024)
- CFPB, How does my credit card company calculate the amount of interest I owe? (page reviewed Jan 22, 2024)
- CFPB, What should I do if I can't pay my credit card bills? (page reviewed Sep 2, 2026)
- Federal Reserve, G.19 Consumer Credit, August 2026 (page modified Oct 7, 2026)
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