How credit card interest works

An APR is an annual rate; card interest is generally charged monthly against the balance you carry. The worked example below works that out for the card in its fields.

If you pay your statement balance in full each cycle, a grace period usually means you are charged no interest on purchases at all. Interest becomes a real cost the moment you start carrying a balance from month to month.

The answer

Paying $200.00 a month on a $6,000.00 balance at 22.99% APR takes 3 yr 10 mo — around Aug 2030 — and costs $3,011.78 in interest.

Of the first $200.00, $114.95 is interest and $85.05 comes off what you owe.

Total interest: $3,011.78
Total paid: $9,011.78

An estimate from the inputs shown, not a promise of a particular date. How we calculate this.

Aug 2030

Estimated debt-free date

$6,000 owed 3 years 10 months $3,011.78 in interest

Total interest

$3,011.78

Total paid

$9,011.78

Interactive chart unavailable. Your payoff figures are still shown below.

Starting balance: $6,000
Estimated payoff: Aug 2030

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Assumptions

Interest accrues once a month, before that month's payment.
The APR stays at 22.99% for the whole term.
No new spending, fees, penalty rate or promotional rate.
You pay the payment above in full, on time, every month.

Month by month

What is left at the end of each month, after that month's payment — from the same engine run as the answer above.

Month-by-month payoff schedule, 1 year shown
Month	Date	Balance
Start	Oct 2026	$6,000.00
1	Nov 2026	$5,914.95
2	Dec 2026	$5,828.27
3	Jan 2027	$5,739.93
4	Feb 2027	$5,649.90
5	Mar 2027	$5,558.14
6	Apr 2027	$5,464.63
7	May 2027	$5,369.32
8	Jun 2027	$5,272.19
9	Jul 2027	$5,173.19
10	Aug 2027	$5,072.30
11	Sep 2027	$4,969.48
12	Oct 2027	$4,864.69

Show the full schedule — all 3 years 10 months

Month-by-month payoff schedule
Month	Date	Balance
Start	Oct 2026	$6,000.00
1	Nov 2026	$5,914.95
2	Dec 2026	$5,828.27
3	Jan 2027	$5,739.93
4	Feb 2027	$5,649.90
5	Mar 2027	$5,558.14
6	Apr 2027	$5,464.63
7	May 2027	$5,369.32
8	Jun 2027	$5,272.19
9	Jul 2027	$5,173.19
10	Aug 2027	$5,072.30
11	Sep 2027	$4,969.48
12	Oct 2027	$4,864.69
13	Nov 2027	$4,757.88
14	Dec 2027	$4,649.04
15	Jan 2028	$4,538.11
16	Feb 2028	$4,425.05
17	Mar 2028	$4,309.82
18	Apr 2028	$4,192.39
19	May 2028	$4,072.71
20	Jun 2028	$3,950.74
21	Jul 2028	$3,826.43
22	Aug 2028	$3,699.74
23	Sep 2028	$3,570.62
24	Oct 2028	$3,439.03
25	Nov 2028	$3,304.91
26	Dec 2028	$3,168.23
27	Jan 2029	$3,028.93
28	Feb 2029	$2,886.95
29	Mar 2029	$2,742.26
30	Apr 2029	$2,594.80
31	May 2029	$2,444.51
32	Jun 2029	$2,291.35
33	Jul 2029	$2,135.24
34	Aug 2029	$1,976.15
35	Sep 2029	$1,814.01
36	Oct 2029	$1,648.77
37	Nov 2029	$1,480.35
38	Dec 2029	$1,308.71
39	Jan 2030	$1,133.79
40	Feb 2030	$955.51
41	Mar 2030	$773.81
42	Apr 2030	$588.64
43	May 2030	$399.92
44	Jun 2030	$207.58
45	Jul 2030	$11.56
46	Aug 2030	$0.00

APR, per month

A monthly interest charge is roughly the balance multiplied by the monthly share of the APR. Issuers usually compute it against an average daily balance rather than a single snapshot, so your statement may differ slightly from a flat monthly model such as this. The difference is small; the direction is not.

When the answer above shows the opening payment split into interest and the part that comes off what you owe, that interest part is what carrying the balance for a month costs at that rate.

How to avoid interest on a credit card

Interest on purchases is avoidable in the ordinary case: pay the full statement balance by the due date, every cycle, and a card with a grace period charges no interest on those purchases. A grace period applies to purchases; cash advances and convenience checks generally accrue interest from the day of the transaction, with no grace period at all.

The protection is usually lost the cycle you carry a balance: pay less than the full statement balance and new purchases can start accruing interest immediately, and it can take a cycle or more of paying in full to get the grace period back. That is why paying in full is a different thing from paying most of it.

If you already carry a balance, interest is charged on it at the card's rate for as long as it is carried — the calculator above shows what that costs at the rate you enter, and the extra payment calculator shows what paying more changes. A promotional rate changes the rate for a time, not the arithmetic, and it ends.

The grace period, and when it disappears

Pay the statement balance in full and most cards charge no interest on new purchases. Carry a balance and that protection typically lapses, so new purchases can start accruing immediately. This is why 'I will just pay it down slowly' quietly costs more than people expect.

Not every rate on the card is the same rate

Cash advances, balance transfers and purchases frequently carry different APRs, and a penalty rate can apply after a missed payment. A single-rate calculator — including this — models the balance you tell it about, at the rate you tell it, and nothing else.

Sources

Our source and corrections policy explains how these are chosen.

Reviewed 2026-09-19. Every figure on this page is produced by the same payoff engine the Dang! Payoff app runs, from the inputs shown, and is an estimate that holds only if the stated assumptions hold. The dates printed here were computed from a plan starting October 2026; the calculator re-anchors to the current month in your browser, so a date you read with JavaScript disabled is the one for that starting month rather than for today.

Dang! Payoff is a manual-entry debt payoff planner and tracker from Dang Apps LLC. It is not a lender, credit counselling agency, debt-relief, debt-management or debt-settlement service, and nothing here is financial, legal or tax advice or a recommendation about your situation. Your issuer’s or lender’s own terms govern your account.

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