Pay off credit card calculator | TDECU (2024)

FAQs

What is the 15 3 credit card payment rule? ›

What is the 15/3 rule? The 15/3 rule, a trending credit card repayment method, suggests paying your credit card bill in two payments—both 15 days and 3 days before your payment due date. Proponents say it helps raise credit scores more quickly, but there's no real proof. Building credit takes time and effort.

Bottom line. If you have a credit card balance, it's typically best to pay it off in full if you can.

To pay off your balance of $3,000 in 12 months, you will need to make monthly payments of $262 and make no additional charges to your card. If you make monthly charges of $0 and monthly payments of $100 you will pay off your balance in 34 months or 2.83 years.

Instead of only paying at the end of the statement, you make one payment about halfway through your statement (15 days before it's due) and a second payment right before the due date (three days before it's due).

Our 50/30/20 calculator divides your take-home income into suggested spending in three categories: 50% of net pay for needs, 30% for wants and 20% for savings and debt repayment. Find out how this budgeting approach applies to your money.

If you can afford to pay off your debt during the promotional APR period, a balance transfer card may be your best bet. For example, with $5,000 of debt, a six-month intro APR balance transfer card would allow you to pay off your debt interest-free with $833.33/month payments.

"If you're only paying the minimum, it will take decades to get out of debt." In fact, if you owe $5,000 on a card with a 22% interest rate and a minimum payment that covers interest plus 1% of the balance, you'd be repaying your debt for 281 months and would incur $8,526.51 in interest costs over that time.

$15,000 can be an intimidating total when you see it on credit card statements, but you don't have to be in debt forever. If you're struggling to make your minimum payments every month and you don't see light at the end of the tunnel, sign up for a debt management program to get out of debt fast.

What is the best way to wipe out credit card debt? ›

Outside of bankruptcy or debt settlement, there are really no other ways to completely wipe away credit card debt without paying. Making minimum payments and slowly chipping away at the balance is the norm for most people in debt, and that may be the best option in many situations.

Having any credit card debt can be stressful, but $10,000 in credit card debt is a different level of stress. The average credit card interest rate is over 20%, so interest charges alone will take up a large chunk of your payments. On $10,000 in balances, you could end up paying over $2,000 per year in interest.

But despite what you may have heard, there's nothing special about the hack itself. Making multiple payments a month could help keep your balances low and avoid late payments, but there's no extra advantage if you do it 15 days or three days ahead of your statement date or due date.

If you pay your credit card twice (or more), then it will only affect your credit score positively.

You can also use the Rule of 72 to plug in interest rates from credit card debt, a car loan, home mortgage, or student loan to figure out how many years it'll take your money to double for someone else. For example, the average interest rate for credit cards is 17.3%. If you divide 72 by that rate, you get 4.16 years.

What is the 5/24 rule? Many card issuers have criteria for who can qualify for new accounts, but Chase is perhaps the most strict. Chase's 5/24 rule means that you can't be approved for most Chase cards if you've opened five or more personal credit cards (from any card issuer) within the past 24 months.