How to Calculate How Long it Takes to Pay Off a Credit Card

If you have a balance on a credit card, you may wonder how long it will take to pay it off and be debt free. You can easily find out how long it will take to pay off the balance and can calculate this in a few ways. When doing your calculations, you can find out how long it will take to pay off your debt based on paying the minimum monthly payment or by paying more.

Instructions

1

Go to BankRate.com and use its credit card debt calculator. Refer to your credit card statement to enter the balance, interest rate and monthly payment into the designated fields. Click "Calculate" to see how long it will take to pay off the credit card at the current monthly payment.

2

Enter the number of months you want to pay your debt off in to see how much you will need to pay each month to get your card paid off.

3

Open Microsoft Excel as another method of calculating debt repayment. Type "=" in anywhere on the spreadsheet. Above Column A you will see the function box. Click "NPER"; if you don't see "NPER" on the list, click "More Functions" and scroll until you find "NPER."

4

Enter your annual credit card rate in the "Rate" box. Divide the rate by 365 to get the daily rate and multiple that number by 30 for the monthly rate. For example, if your annual rate is 7.9 percent, enter it as "(7.9%/365)*30." Under "Pmt" enter your monthly payment. In the "Pv" box enter your credit card balance as a negative number. Enter "0" under "Fv" since you want to pay off the balance. Click "OK" and the number on the spreadsheet will be the number of months it will take you to pay off your debt.