Debt Repayment Calculator
Total debt, its average rate, and the monthly amount you can truly pay: the debt-free month, the total interest, and a balance chart for the road.
One debt, one budget, one date
Strip away the strategy debates and a debt is a balance, a rate and a monthly amount you can truly sustain. From those three, the debt-free month is fully determined — this page determines it, with the interest total attached so the budget's value is priced, not preached.
Months = the simulation's count: interest accrues monthly at APR ÷ 12, your budget payment lands each month
Example: $15,000 at 19% with $450 a month: debt-free in about 45 months, with roughly $5,100 of interest. Raise the budget to $600 and the term collapses to about 32 months with interest near $3,400 — $150 a month buying back $1,700 and 13 months.
If the budget barely clears the interest
The page refuses politely when the budget does not cover a month's interest — that is not a plan but a slow default, and it needs structural help (rate negotiation, consolidation, a hardship program) before payment planning applies. The refusal message states the minimum workable budget for your figures.
How this is calculated
Month-by-month simulation at the APR ÷ 12 monthly rate (a blended average if you are aggregating several debts). For multiple debts with different rates and minimums, the debt-payoff calculator models them individually — this page is the single-figure planner, honest about using one blended rate.
Frequently asked questions
What APR do I use for several debts?
A balance-weighted average: multiply each balance by its APR, sum, divide by the total balance. It approximates the portfolio's drag; the multi-debt calculator removes the approximation.
Does a bigger budget always help proportionally?
More than proportionally at the start — every extra dollar shortens the high-balance months where interest is thickest. The gains taper once the balance is small, which the interest totals make visible.
Should the budget include irregular income?
Plan the floor on your worst-month income and treat windfalls as accelerants when they arrive. Plans sized to average income fail in below-average months — and one missed month costs more than the average suggested.
Repay debt or build savings first?
A small starter emergency fund usually comes first so the next surprise does not go back on the card; after that, high-APR debt outearns almost any savings account, as this page's interest totals demonstrate.
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