How long does paying only the minimum take to clear a credit card?

By DecisionSheet · Updated September 26, 2026 · 2026 tax figures

Every credit card statement carries a box headed "Minimum Payment Warning", with an estimate of how long the balance would take to pay off making only the minimum payment and what that would cost in total. The Credit CARD Act of 2009 required it (Public Law 111-24, section 201), and the detailed rule is Regulation Z, section 1026.7(b)(12) (CFPB, Regulation Z § 1026.7).

This page runs one card through DecisionSheet's debt payoff calculator: $5,000 at 22.15% APR (annual percentage rate), with a payment of $100 a month. At that payment alone the balance is gone after 141 months, about 11.8 years, and the card has charged $9,012 of interest, more than the balance itself. The page then adds a fixed extra amount on top, from $25 to $200 a month.

What the calculator can and cannot model

The calculator treats a minimum payment as a fixed dollar amount entered for each debt. It does not recalculate the minimum from the balance each month. A card's minimum is set by the issuer's minimum payment formula; the regulation's own worked example is a minimum of "2% of the outstanding balance on the account or $20, whichever is greater" (CFPB, Regulation Z Appendix M1). Under a formula like that the minimum shrinks as the balance shrinks.

So the question the calculator can answer is narrower than the statement's: how long it takes to clear the card when the first statement's minimum is paid every month and never reduced. This page uses the example formula to set that figure. 2% of $5,000 is $100, and the calculator holds it there until the balance reaches zero.

That makes the calculator's answer the faster of the two. Under the example formula the minimum starts at the same $100 and can only fall from there, so it never pays more in a month than the fixed payment does, and a balance paid down more slowly cannot be cleared sooner. The estimate on a real statement uses the issuer's own formula (Appendix M1 requires it), so for a card with that formula it can be no shorter than 141 months. How much longer depends on the formula, which the calculator does not take as an input.

The rate is not arbitrary. 22.15% is the average rate on credit card accounts assessed interest at commercial banks in 2026 Q2, from the Federal Reserve's G.19 consumer credit release of September 8, 2026 (Federal Reserve G.19).

The minimum alone

Each month the model charges one-twelfth of the APR on the balance, then applies the payment, interest first. In the first month that is $92.29 of interest, which leaves $7.71 of the $100 to reduce the balance. The principal share grows each month as the balance, and with it the interest, falls.

Over 141 months the card takes $14,012 in total, of which $9,012 is interest. Open this scenario.

A fixed extra amount on top

The same card and the same $100 minimum, with a fixed extra amount added every month. The scenarios differ only in that extra amount.

Every step down the table finishes sooner and costs less interest. The steps are not equal. The first $25 removes 67 months. Going from $25 to $200, another $175 a month, removes 53 more. Measured as months saved per extra dollar, each step in the table buys less than the one before it.

The first month shows where the first step's effect comes from. At $100, $7.71 of the payment reaches the balance. With $25 extra, the interest charge is the same and $32.71 reaches it, more than four times as much.

The calculator is built to compare two ways of ordering several debts, the avalanche and the snowball. With a single card there is nothing to order, so both tiles show the same result. The "vs min" badge is the comparison this page is about: the same card with no extra and the payment never raised.

The dashed line is the minimum-only run. The avalanche and snowball runs coincide, so only one solid line shows. With $100 extra the card is clear in month 34; at month 36, 3 years in, the minimum-only balance is still $4,611 of the original $5,000.

The 36-month figure

The statement's warning box has a second part. Unless the minimum-payment estimate rounds to three years or less, the issuer must also print "the estimated monthly payment for repayment in 36 months" (CFPB, Regulation Z § 1026.7).

The calculator's version of that number, for this card, is the smallest whole-dollar extra that clears it in 36 months or fewer: $92, a $192 payment. It clears the card in 36 months for $1,879 of interest, $7,133 less than the minimum alone. Open this scenario. A statement's figure is computed under the regulation's own method and the card's actual terms, so it need not match.

For more than one debt, and the question of which one gets the extra money, see Avalanche vs. snowball: what the 'motivation' method actually costs.

Assumptions and limits

• Fixed payment. The minimum is the dollar amount entered and never falls with the balance. A minimum set by the example formula takes at least as long; 141 months is the shortest it could take on this card.
• Fixed rate. The APR stays at 22.15% until the card is paid. Promotional rates, penalty rates and variable-rate changes are not modeled.
• Monthly interest. The model charges one-twelfth of the APR on each month's balance. Many issuers calculate interest daily on the average daily balance (CFPB), so a real statement will differ.
• No new charges. Nothing is added to the card while it is being paid down. The statement's estimate makes the same assumption: it is "based on the assumption that only minimum payments are made and no other amounts are added to the balance."
• No fees. Annual fees, late fees and other charges are not modeled.
• Horizon. The simulation stops at 480 months (40 years). Every scenario here finishes inside it.

Method and sources

The model is calculateDebtPayoff in the debt payoff calculator. Each month it adds one-twelfth of the APR to the balance, pays the minimum (interest first), then applies the extra payment. Its "minimum payments only" line is the same run with no extra. With one debt, the avalanche and snowball runs are identical. Every figure above comes from running the model on the inputs in the scenario links.

• Public Law 111-24, the Credit CARD Act of 2009, section 201, "Payoff timing disclosures" — amends the Truth in Lending Act to require a "Minimum Payment Warning" and repayment information on each statement.
• CFPB, Regulation Z § 1026.7(b)(12), Repayment disclosures — the warning, the minimum payment repayment estimate and total cost estimate, the assumption that only minimum payments are made and nothing is added, and the estimated monthly payment for repayment in 36 months.
• CFPB, Regulation Z Appendix M1 — issuers must use the minimum payment formula(s) that apply to the account; the example formula of 2% of the balance or $20, whichever is greater.
• Federal Reserve, G.19 Consumer Credit, release of September 8, 2026 — interest rate on credit card accounts assessed interest at commercial banks, 2026 Q2: 22.15%.
• CFPB: How does my credit card company calculate the amount of interest I owe? — many issuers calculate interest daily, based on the average daily balance.

Open this scenario in the calculator

All figures on this page come from the Debt Avalanche vs. Snowball calculator. Change any input there and the numbers update.