Credit Card Payment Calculators
It’s really important to know about how much your credit cards are costing you over time. The credit card repayment calculators are a great way to assist you in making sure you have wise approaches to controlling your use of your credit cards. They will help you control and adjust your spending and assist you in working out what is the best way to structure your card repayments.
Repaying your credit card debt is often difficult to fathom, but these calculators will let you see how long your debt is going to take to pay off depending on the possible amounts of money you might pay per month. It is really wise to be on top of this, so use the credit card calculators to ensure you stay in control of your spending and your debt. They will help you strategize your payments so that you pay as little interest on your debt as possible.
Knowing the length of time it will take to pay down your debt is really important and we can help you calculate this. The calculators will help you establish how much money you will need to pay per month depending on the amount of time you want to take to pay off your debt.
How long will it take me to pay off my credit card bill?
The key thing here is knowing what interest rate you are being charged. This is the factor that most influences your overall debt and the timeline to repay it.
If you pay too little per month, or maybe only pay the minimum required by the credit card company, your actual debt may rise each month, even if you have not spent anything on your card. The calculators will help you work out whether this is the case.
If you want to know how long it will take to pay off your whole debt, or a percentage of your debt over a particular period of time, with different levels of monthly payment – and we would really recommend you know that information – then the credit card repayment calculator will help you do that. Once you see how much extra interest you have to pay if you pay only the minimum asked by the credit card company, you may decide to increase your payments. The calculators will show you what the difference is between different overall costs depending on how much you pay off per month, once the interest on your debt is taken into account.
Here is a link to the calculation tool.
How do I know what to pay per month?
Why is the minimum payment low?
If you pay the minimum, your debt will last longer. That’s why. Paying the minimum will not help your finances in the longer term. You will be in debt for far longer than if you can pay more debt down faster. Use the calculators to work out some different scenarios.
The reason the minimum amount is small is because that benefits the credit card companies! They make more money, the longer you have the card debts. Interest rates charged by cards are often much higher than bank loan rates, so do not use credit cards for long term borrowing. If you want to calculate the difference you would pay between borrowing $5000 on your credit card over 3 years and repaying the minimum per month, or from your bank over three years and paying down what the bank requires from you per month, use the calculators. You will be staggered at the difference, and remember, the credit card option will still mean you owe a lot even after those three years, and maybe more than you actually first borrowed. Use the calculators to see what the difference would be and make it work for you – not for the credit card company.
Pay what you can afford, not the minimum
Minimum payments cost you hugely, due to high credit card interest rates. You are much wiser to pay down as much credit card debt as you can. Use the calculator to check the difference over different timescales. If you borrow $1000 on your credit card and think you can pay it off over 10 months just by paying $100 per month, you are wrong! Remember, the interest rate means that debt is always heading upwards at some rate or other. Even after you pay back $1000 there will still be some money owing. Use the calculator to see how much would still be left with different interest rates. Check your own credit card’s interest rate and see how much you would still owe under this scenario.
Should I borrow on a credit card?
You need to be careful. Some cards will give you a 0% interest rate as a joining bonus for a few months. It is usually about 6 months. This means you pay no interest on any spending on the card across the first six months.
But take care. Once the six months are up, the usual high rates kick in. If you have racked up a lot of debt, thinking it is ‘free’, you will be in trouble, as suddenly all that debt is gathering interest. Use the credit card payment calculator to see how much you would suddenly have to pay on $5000 of debt with a 15% APR rate, for example. It will be much more than you might think.
Credit cards are really not the right thing for significant borrowing. They are for convenience and they can come with some good fraud cover and some good insurance cover, but try not to think of them as sources of borrowing. The calculators will show you why that is a bad idea and one that will leave you heavily out of pocket.
Swap your provider for a better deal
If you end up with a high rate then look around for another interest free introduction period on a different card to transfer your balance to. The hassle of the admin is well worth the savings you’ll make. Calculate how much you would save over just three months, for example, and you will see how wise it is to shop around.
Knowing Your Interest Rates
What Is APR?
This is a really important rate to know about your card provider. The APR rate is known as the Annual Percentage Rate. This rate, which is often around 18%-35% on many major cards, is the interest rate you will pay on your credit card borrowing or the loan you have out with a bank or loan company. Some smaller companies targeting customers with less good credit scores will have even higher rates, so really do check this out.