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.
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 and interest calculator from ConsumerCredit.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 result, it will take 42 years and 508 payments to pay off the $4000 bill, with a total of $10,931.10 in interest.
CNNMoney.com provides a credit card debt calculator that will allow you to preform several different types of calculations. You can also enter multiple credit cards at once so you can determine the entire monthly payment needed to eliminate all of your credit card debt. Select from 3 different types of payment plans: minimum payment, fixed payments, and debt-free deadline.
If you want to pay off you card within a specific number of months, BankRate.com offers a tools that will help you estimate the minimum payment required to pay off your debt in the allotted 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, it would take a minimum payment of $366.72 to meet my goal.
If you want to get out of credit card debt but don't know where to start, these online tools can help you put a plan in place.
ConsumerCredit.com Calculator
CNN.com Money Tools
BankRate.com Payment Calculator
