Credit Card Minimum Payment Calculator

Calculate this month's credit card minimum payment from your balance, APR, and issuer's minimum-payment rules, then see how many months a minimum-only payoff would take and how much interest it would cost.

Quick Facts

Formula
Min payment = greater of (balance × min%) or flat floor
Recalculated every month on the declining balance, the same way issuer statements work.
Typical range
1% to 3% of the statement balance
Most U.S. issuers set the percentage-of-balance rate somewhere in this band, often 2%.

Your Results

Calculated
This month's minimum payment
-
Greater of percent-of-balance or the flat floor
Time to pay off (minimum only)
-
Paying only the declining minimum each month
Total interest paid
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Interest charged over the full payoff period
Total amount paid
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Balance plus all interest charged

Ready

Enter your balance, APR, minimum payment percent, and floor amount, then press Calculate.

How the Credit Card Minimum Payment Calculator works

Card issuers do not charge a fixed minimum payment. Instead, they set a rule — usually the greater of a small percentage of your statement balance or a flat dollar floor — and recompute the required payment fresh every month against whatever balance is left. This calculator reproduces that same rule so you can see this month's minimum, and what happens if you keep paying only the minimum going forward.

The formula

For a balance B, a monthly periodic rate r (APR ÷ 12), a minimum-payment percentage p, and a flat floor F, this month's minimum payment is:

Minimum payment = max(B × p, F)

To project the full payoff, the calculator then simulates month by month: it charges interest on the current balance (B × r), applies the same greater-of rule to the current balance to get that month's payment, subtracts the interest portion to find how much principal gets paid down, and repeats until the balance reaches zero — capping the simulation at 50 years (600 months). This mirrors how issuers actually recalculate your due amount every statement cycle as the balance shrinks.

Worked example

Take a $5,000 balance at 22.99% APR with a 2.5% minimum-payment rate and a $25 floor. The first month's interest is about $5,000 × (0.2299 / 12) ≈ $95.79, and the percent-of-balance minimum is $5,000 × 2.5% = $125, which exceeds the $25 floor, so the first payment is $125 — only about $29 of which reduces the principal. Because the required minimum keeps shrinking along with the balance, the payoff drags on for roughly 29 years, and the total interest paid comes out to around $14,000 — nearly three times the original balance.

Why minimum-only payoffs take so long

  • The payment shrinks with the balance: unlike a fixed installment loan payment, a percent-of-balance minimum gets smaller every month, so less and less extra goes toward principal over time.
  • Interest compounds against a large starting balance: in the early months, most of the minimum payment covers interest rather than reducing what you owe.
  • Higher APRs slow payoff further: raising the APR increases the interest charged each month, which eats into the principal portion of an already-shrinking payment.

The minimum-payment trap

If the monthly interest charge is greater than or equal to the calculated minimum payment, no principal gets paid down under minimum payments alone, and the balance can stagnate or grow. This calculator flags that condition and stops the simulation at the 50-year cap rather than projecting an unrealistic payoff date. Paying a fixed amount above the minimum — rather than letting the required payment shrink with the balance — is the standard way to avoid this trap and cut both time and interest; this tool does not model fixed extra payments, so pair it with a payoff calculator that does if you want to test that scenario.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do card issuers calculate the minimum payment?
Most issuers use the greater of two amounts: a percent of the statement balance (commonly 1% to 3%, often 2%) plus that month's accrued interest, or a flat dollar floor such as $25 or $35. The calculator applies this same greater-of rule and recalculates it every month as the balance falls, matching how real statements work.
Why does paying only the minimum take so long?
Because the minimum is a percentage of a shrinking balance, the required payment gets smaller every month right along with the balance, so very little extra principal ever gets paid down. Early payments are mostly interest, and the payoff timeline stretches into years or decades depending on the APR and percentage used.
What does it mean if the calculator flags a payment trap?
If the monthly interest charge is greater than or equal to the calculated minimum payment, the balance cannot shrink under minimum payments alone — it may grow instead. The calculator caps its simulation at 50 years and reports this condition explicitly when the payoff time exceeds that window.
How can I pay off the balance faster?
Paying any fixed amount above the minimum, rather than the declining minimum itself, keeps the payment level as the balance falls and sharply cuts both the payoff time and total interest. This calculator does not model fixed extra payments — use it to see the minimum-only baseline, then compare against a fixed-payment payoff calculator.

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