Loan vs. card payoff calculator
Enter the card balance, its APR and what you pay each month, then the loan's APR, term and fee. You get the time and the total cost of each route.
The card
$500 to $100,000.
0% to 40%.
Fixed amount, no new purchases.
The personal loan
0% to 36%.
12 to 84 months.
0% to 12%, taken from the loan.
Card route
- Time to pay off
- —
- Card interest
- —
Loan route
- Loan amount with the fee
- —
- Monthly loan payment
- —
- Interest plus fee
- —
- The loan saves (or costs)
- —
Get loan offers to compare
Five quick answers and your contact details. TrustCedar passes the request to lenders and loan brokers; compare the APRs that come back against the rate board, and say no to any of them.
- 1 The amount, the purpose, your credit range, your timing and ZIP code.
- 2 Your name, phone, email and consent to be contacted.
- 3 A lender or loan broker may reply with an offer. No loan exists until you sign one.
You pay TrustCedar nothing. The lenders and loan brokers who contact you set their own rates, fees and terms, and decide on credit themselves. How we make money.
How the calculator works
The card side charges a month's interest at APR ÷ 12 on the balance, then takes your payment, until the balance is gone; it assumes no new purchases and a payment that stays the same. If the payment does not cover the first month's interest, the card never pays off and the calculator says so.
The loan side assumes the lender takes its origination fee out of the loan, so you must borrow a little more than the card balance to clear it: loan = balance ÷ (1 − fee). The loan's cost is its interest plus that fee.
A worked example
An $8,000 balance at 22.36%, the Fed's latest average for card accounts that pay interest, paid at $250 a month takes 4 years 2 months and costs $4,282 in interest. A 36-month loan at 12% with a 5% fee is $8,421, costs $279.70 a month and $2,069 in interest and fee together. The loan comes out about $2,213 ahead, with a higher monthly payment. The full comparison is in personal loan vs. credit card; a 0% transfer card is a third route: loan vs. balance transfer.