🎯 Debt Free Date Calculator

Enter your total debt balance, average interest rate, and total monthly payment across all debts to project the date you'll be debt-free.

From three numbers to a date

Your whole debt load is treated as one balance B at one monthly rate r, paid with a level payment P. The month count is solved directly, rounded up, and counted forward from today:

r = APR / 100 / 12
n = -ln(1 - r x B / P) / ln(1 + r)
debt-free date = today + ceil(n) months

The defaults - $20,000 at 14% with $600 a month - give n = 42.5, so about 3 years 7 months, and $5,475 of interest on the way. The date keeps today's day of the month, so it moves every day you reload the page.

How close you are to the interest floor decides everything

That $20,000 accrues $233.33 in its first month, and only what you pay above that touches the balance. Paying $250 - $16.67 over the line - takes 233 months and $38,368 of interest, nearly twice what you borrowed. Paying $700 rather than $600 pulls the date forward seven and a half months. The closer the payment sits to the floor, the more violently the date swings.

One average rate across several debts is a fair estimate of the date but not of the cost. Weight the average by balance rather than taking a plain mean, or a small card at 25% drags the figure somewhere your money is not.

Frequently asked questions

When will I be debt free with $20,000 at 14%?

Paying $600 a month, in 42.5 months - roughly three years and seven months - having paid $5,475 in interest.

How much sooner if I pay $100 more each month?

On those same numbers, 35 months instead of 42.5 and $4,470 of interest instead of $5,475. The extra $100 buys back seven and a half months and about $1,005.

Why does it say my payment does not cover the interest?

Because balance x APR / 12 is larger than what you are paying, so the balance grows every month and there is no date to give. At $20,000 and 14% the floor is $233.33 a month.