How much do your credit card purchase really cost you? How long will you be paying for that cappuccino, tank of gas or pair of jeans you purchased this week? And what will these purchases really cost in the end? If you don't know the answer to these questions you need to start using a credit card debt calculator and face the reality of the costs of credit card debt.

Credit cards have become a way of life for many people. It's so easy to pull out that magic card, give it a swipe and walk out of a store with money still in your pocket. Plastic separates us from the realities of the true cost of our purchases.

These calculators don't agree even when one enters the same information, but the sticker shock is still there even with the slight discrepancies.

To test these calculators I entered $4,000 as the credit card debt at 18% interest with a minimum 2% payment due.

The credit card payment calculator from MyCalculators.com shows you how much your purchase will cost you, how long it will take to pay off and how much interest you will pay. The details appear in a pop-up window. I especially like this calculator because of the detailed chart it produces. Print out the chart and keep it as a reminder of how much your credit card expenditures are really costing you. MyCalculator.com calculated it would take 490 months to pay off the $4000 bill, with a total paid of $14,360.17 of which $10,360.17 would be interest. I entered $10 as the minimum payment to make it compatible to the Bankrate.com calculator.

Bankrate provides two different credit card debt calculators. The first credit card calculator helps you calculate how long it will take to pay off you balance and the amount of interest you will pay. Bankrate calculated it would take 508 months to pay off the $4000 bill and that you would pay $10,931.65 in interest. Bank rate defaults to a $10 minimum payment after you fall below the minimum percent rate

If you want to pay off you card within a specific number of months the second BankRate.com credit card calculator will help you calculate the minimum payment you will need to make to pay off your debt in the alloted time. For this calculator I entered the same basic debt information, but entered 12 months as the time I wanted to be debt free. The verdict was it would take a minimum payment of $366.72 to meet my goal.

The Capital One credit card calculator will tell you how long it will take to pay off your balance using a set payment plan or calculate a minimum payment to meet a time goal. It calculated that I would have to make the same minimum payment of $366.72 to meet a 12 month goal of being debt free. The one difference is that this calculator allow you to include an annual or monthly membership fees into your calculations.