Credit card minimum payments are usually a small percentage of your balance, often 2%, not a fixed amount. That means as your balance shrinks, so does your required payment, which is exactly what makes minimum-only payoff take so much longer than people expect. This calculator shows you the real timeline for your own card.
Why this happens
A declining minimum payment creates a moving target: every month, a smaller payment is required, and a smaller share of it goes to principal instead of interest. On a high-rate card with a low minimum percentage, this can genuinely never converge to zero within any realistic timeframe. The calculator above will flag this directly if your numbers land in that range.
The one change that fixes it
The comparison above, paying a fixed amount instead of a declining minimum, is usually the single biggest lever available. You don’t need to pay more than your card’s current minimum requires, you just need to stop letting that required amount shrink every month as your balance does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my minimum payment going down every month?
Most card issuers calculate your minimum as a percentage of your current balance, commonly 1% to 3%. As you pay down the balance, that percentage produces a smaller dollar amount, so your required minimum payment decreases along with it.
Is it ever okay to pay only the minimum?
In a genuine short-term cash crunch, paying the minimum keeps the account current and avoids late fees, which matters for your credit. As an ongoing strategy, it’s rarely a good idea for the reasons this calculator illustrates, the interest cost and payoff timeline both get dramatically worse.
What’s a typical credit card minimum payment percentage?
Most issuers use somewhere between 1% and 3% of the balance, often with a flat-dollar floor (commonly around $25 or your local currency’s equivalent) for low balances. Check your card’s cardholder agreement or a recent statement for your card’s exact terms, since this varies by issuer.