Minimum payment only credit card calculator

Key takeaway: On the defaults here — $6,200 at 22.9% APR — coasting on the minimum takes roughly 19 years and $9,416.40 of interest, about one and a half times the balance itself. The rate is only half the story; a payment engineered to shrink whenever your balance does is the other half.

If your card sits on autopay for the "minimum due" — or the minimum is all your budget allows right now — this page prices out staying in that mode: no extra payments, no new cards — just paying exactly what's asked until the balance dies of old age.

How issuers actually set the minimum

A minimum payment is a formula, not a number: most US issuers charge the greater of a small percent of your balance (adjustable here between 1% and 5%) or a flat dollar floor, commonly $25 to $35. Some phrase it as "1% of the balance plus interest and fees," which comes out roughly the same — the last FAQ shows how to translate.

The percent is what makes coasting expensive. Recalculated from your balance every cycle, it turns each dollar of progress into a lower required payment next month — a push that weakens exactly as fast as the debt does, stretching the payoff's tail across years. A fixed payment can't behave this way; the standard payoff calculator, where you pick one payment and hold it, answers a different question.

A worked example, dollar by dollar

The loop: each month, one-twelfth of your APR is added to the balance; the required payment becomes your minimum percent of that interest-inclusive balance, or the floor if the percent falls short; only the part above the interest touches principal.

Run that with the defaults — $6,200 at 22.9% APR (the current average card rate is 24.35%), a 3% minimum, a $25 floor:

• Month 1: interest adds $118.32 to make the payment due $189.55 — only $71.23 reaches the balance.
• Year 1: you send $2,136.22; the balance falls by just $802.80.
• The long middle: the payment sags to $166.92 by month 12 and $95.86 by month 60, when the balance finally crosses halfway — five years for the first half, fourteen more for the second.
• The endgame: at month 177 the 3% amount slips under $25 with roughly $800 left, so the flat floor closes it out — payoff lands at month 228, after $15,616.40 paid, $9,416.40 of it interest.

What "percent paid in interest" tells you

The results include one number built for comparing scenarios: interest as a share of the original balance — about 152% on the defaults, or $1.52 handed to the issuer for every dollar borrowed. Put against the total instead: roughly 60 cents of every dollar you send is interest. Over 100% means the borrowing cost outgrew the borrowing itself — a line minimum-only payoff crosses easily at ordinary card rates.

Reading your statement's minimum payment warning

Every US card statement carries a federally mandated box, usually labeled "Minimum Payment Warning." Under the CARD Act of 2009 it must show how long minimum-only payments would take to clear your balance (assuming no new charges), what that costs in total, and — when payoff runs past three years — the monthly payment that clears it in 36 months, plus a toll-free credit counseling number.

The box is a free, personalized version of this calculator. Three ways to use it:

• The years figure is a baseline, not fate. You can't change the issuer's formula, but you can out-pay it: at a 4% minimum instead of 3%, the defaults finish 89 months sooner and $4,277.08 cheaper.
• The 36-month row is the issuer handing you a target. If that payment fits, take it — or set your own deadline with the target-months calculator.
• If neither fits, don't default to coasting. Any fixed amount above the minimum breaks the shrinking loop; the extra payments calculator shows what each added dollar buys.

One caveat applies equally to the box and this page: both freeze today's balance — keep swiping and every projection understates reality.

How we calculate this

The engine replays your account one month at a time: interest joins the balance at APR divided by twelve, the payment is recomputed as the larger of your minimum percent (applied to the interest-inclusive balance) or your floor, and the surplus over interest comes off the principal, until the balance hits zero. If even the first payment wouldn't cover the first month's interest, the calculator flags it — a balance in that state only grows. The schedule and charts come straight from this replay: watch the payment column decay, then flatten once the floor takes over.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the minimum payment keep shrinking as my balance drops?

Because it isn't a fixed amount: issuers recompute it every cycle as a percent of whatever you currently owe, so progress on the balance automatically lowers the next required payment, which slows further progress. That feedback loop is why minimum-only payoff takes decades rather than years.

What is the dollar floor for?

Without a floor, a percent-based minimum would shrink toward pennies and the debt would never quite close. Issuers therefore set a fixed dollar minimum — commonly $25 to $35 — that applies once the percent-based amount falls below it; in the default example here, that handoff comes late and actually speeds the final stretch.

Why does my card statement show a specific number of years to pay off the minimum?

That box is required by the CARD Act of 2009: issuers must disclose how long minimum-only payments would take to clear your balance, the total cost, and — when payoff runs past three years — the monthly amount that would finish in 36 months. This calculator runs the same style of projection, so you can test scenarios the box doesn't show.

Does paying only the minimum hurt my credit score?

Paying at least the minimum on time keeps the account current — no late fees, no delinquency. The indirect cost is utilization: because the balance barely falls, you occupy a large share of your credit limit for years, and high utilization tends to weigh on scores until the balance comes down.

My issuer sets the minimum at 1% of the balance plus interest. What should I enter?

Convert it to a single percent. Monthly interest is your APR divided by 12 — about 1.9% of the balance at 22.9% APR — so 1% plus interest behaves like a roughly 3% flat minimum, this calculator's default. To match your issuer exactly, copy the percent and floor from your cardholder agreement or statement.

Sources

• Federal Reserve, G.19 Consumer Credit report (Federal Reserve G.19 Consumer Credit report, as of 2026-05-01)
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Credit cards
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, What is a minimum payment on a credit card?