How to Calculate Weekly Payments for Credit Card Payoff

By paying off your credit card, you can save lots of money in interest and finance charges. One of the challenges to creating a plan to pay off your credit card is that you have to calculate the added interest that will be paid each month while you make payments. By setting up an equation and seeing how much your interest will reduce each week, you can see exactly what payment you'll have to make every week. If you have multiple cards to pay off, apply the minimum to the ones with the lowest interest and use the extra money to pay off the highest interest card you have. This method will save money and, in time, pay off all your credit card debt.

Instructions

1

Calculate your weekly interest rate by taking your annual interest rate and dividing by 52, the number of weeks in a year.

2

Write down your total debt, your weekly interest rate, and how many weeks you want to spend paying off your card.

3

Create a chart with five columns: Week, Balance, Payment, New Balance, Interest.

4

Fill each week into the column labeled Week.

5

Fill in your total credit card balance in the column labeled Balance next to your first week.

6

Fill in the payment you're going to make under the column labeled Payment.

7

Subtract the Payment box from the Balance box and fill in the new total under New Balance.

8

Multiply the new balance by your weekly interest rate. Fill this number in under Interest.

9

Add the number under Interest to the number under New Balance.

10

Put this total on the next row, in the box labeled Balance for the new week.

11

Repeat this process until the entire chart is complete. You'll be able to see the payments you'll need to make each week to pay off your credit card.