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Your credit card's remaining balance
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Plug in your numbers to calculate when you'll be debt-free, how much interest you'll pay, along with your progressive balance.
This calculator can be used to work out how long it will take you to pay off your credit card balance by making different repayments. It will also calculate how much money you will end up paying in fees and interest for different repayment amounts.
Your credit card's remaining balance
To find out how long it will take you to pay down any credit card debt you’re carrying and at what total cost, you’ll have to enter in a few key figures. Let’s break a few of those down:
Credit card balance - This is the total amount owing on your credit card. This should be viewable on your credit card statement, or via your online banking and bank apps.
Monthly payment - The amount you enter as your monthly payment is how much you intend to pay back per month. Changing this figure will change the length of time it takes you to pay off your debt, and the amount of interest you’ll end up paying.
Annual fee - An annual fee is how much your credit card costs per year. If you have a credit card with no annual fee, you’ll enter 0. Rewards credit cards tend to have higher annual fees. If your credit card has a monthly fee instead of an annual fee, multiply it by 12 and put the total in as the annual fee. If your credit card waives the first year fee, you’ll have to subtract one year’s worth of annual fees from the total interest and fees paid.
Interest rate - When you leave a balance on your credit card, it attracts interest. The rate of interest will be listed in the details of the card. The higher the interest rate, the faster your credit card balance will attract interest and the more you will pay on top of the money you initially spent.
Introductory interest rate - Some credit cards will offer an extra low interest rate for a limited period of time. This is usually a 0% introductory rate offer (but can just be a low rate), and can go between 5 months and more than 2 years. Putting in the introductory percentage and term will work out how much you’ll end up paying in interest after the offer expires. If there is no introductory offer, simply select no.
Minimum monthly percentage or minimum monthly amount - These boxes refer to the minimum repayment specified by your credit card and provider. You will find these amounts in your credit card statement.
Even though extra repayments will help you pay off your credit card balance faster, sometimes you just need to know what the minimum repayment amount is.
This amount will be found on your credit card statement, on your banking app or online banking portal, and on the product disclosure statement for your credit card.
It will usually be given as a dollar amount or a percentage, and you will have to pay the higher of the two. The percentage is usually between 2% to 3% of your balance.
If you are looking for a specific provider’s minimum repayments, here are some of the ones from the bigger credit card providers on the market at the time of writing:
American Express credit cards: The higher of $30 or 2.5% of your closing balance
ANZ credit cards: The higher of $25 or 2% of your closing balance
Commonwealth Bank credit cards: The higher of $25 or 2% of your closing balance
Bankwest credit cards: The higher of $20 or 2% of your closing balance
NAB credit cards: The higher of $25 or 2% of your closing balance
St.George credit cards: The higher of $10 or 2% of your closing balance
Westpac credit cards: The higher of $10 or 2% of your closing balance
Bendigo Bank credit cards: The higher of $10 or 3% of your closing balance
In all of these cases, if your closing balance is less than either amount, your minimum repayment will be the full balance.
Keep in mind that these calculations are made based on a credit card balance that is not being added to. One of the reasons many people struggle to emerge from credit card debt is that as they continue to make their repayments, they are also spending on their credit cards – and then paying interest on the increased balance.
If you want to start paying down credit card debt, some of the major steps are to stop spending on the card in question and to look into a balance transfer card where you can minimise on the interest you are paying.
If you want to find out more about credit cards, read more about some of Mozo’s best credit cards.