20 October 2026
Same first payment.
141 fewer months in debt.
A falling minimum can keep a balance alive for 16 years. Freeze the first payment, and the same debt clears in under five.
Example: $5,000 at 22.36% APR. Model minimum: interest + 1% of the opening balance, at least $35. No new charges.
Rate benchmark: US banks, August 2026, preliminary release column.
The payment falls. The finish line moves.
Use your own balance and rate, then inspect any month. The two paths begin together. On the steady path, each dollar no longer needed for interest goes toward the balance.
Illustrative minimum = interest + this percentage of the opening balance, or the floor if larger. Final payment is capped at the amount owed. This is an editable rule, not a bank's terms.
What would extra room in the budget do?
A third path adds this amount to the frozen first payment. Compare the time and interest before choosing your own budget.
Or pick a deadline to calculate the smallest extra payment that meets it in this model.
Inspect every monthly payment
All three modeled paths. Amounts in USD; interest is rounded to cents each month. Blank cells mean that path is already paid off.
| Month | Shrinking pay | Interest | Balance | Steady pay | Interest | Balance | Extra pay | Interest | Balance |
|---|
Today's rate makes a slow exit expensive.
The latest assessed-interest benchmark is 22.36%, versus 16.44% in 2021 Q4. Explore 32 years of reported bank rates, then apply a historical rate to the same balance.
Reported bank averages, not offers or forecasts. The selected rate stays constant throughout the hypothetical repayment.
Inspect 128 quarters and both rate series
Quarter labels as published in the Fed's historical table, 1994 Q4 to 2026 Q3. Quarterly survey observations, not annual averages or a monthly series. The latest observation corresponds to August 2026. No missing values in these two columns.
| Quarter | All accounts, % | Assessed interest, % | Status |
|---|
What the model counts
This is a constant-rate, monthly approximation for one existing USD balance. It assumes no new purchases, fees, missed payments or rate changes. Real statements can use daily balances and different minimum rules; the result is an educational comparison, not an issuer payoff quote.
Minimum = max(floor, interest + principal share)
Closing balance = opening balance + interest − payment
Internally, balances and payments use integer cents. Monthly interest and the principal share round to the nearest cent. A steady payment equals the first modeled minimum; the extra path adds a fixed amount. Each last payment is limited to the remaining balance plus interest. The deadline control searches cent by cent through a bisection calculation and never sets a payment below the first minimum.
The two circular tracks share a scale: one complete turn is the shrinking path's full duration. Chart lines connect monthly closing balances. The month slider reveals the underlying payment, interest and principal. All calculations run locally.
Sources and dates
- Federal Reserve, G.19, 7 October 2026. August 2026 assessed-interest rate: 22.36%; all-account rate: 21.19%. August appears in a preliminary column. The assessed-interest measure relates finance charges to balances on accounts charged interest; it excludes accounts with no finance charges.
- Fed historical terms of credit, retrieved 20 October 2026. All 128 quarterly rows and both card-rate columns are embedded. Historical data can be revised; this page is a fixed snapshot. Latest benchmark retains the preliminary-release note in exports; 2026 Q2 retains the revised-release note.
- CFPB: how credit card interest is calculated. Explains daily balance calculations and different APRs on different balance types.
- CFPB: the three-year repayment box. Statement estimates assume no further charges. Use your own statement and agreement for the rules on your account.