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Minimum payments and how long payoff takes
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This guide
Each debt is paid with its minimum plus its share of any extra. The date is how many months that payment takes to reach zero.
The payment on a row
With no extra payment, the row is paid at the minimum you typed. Interest each month is the balance times the yearly rate divided by twelve. The rest of the payment reduces the balance.
The calculator counts the months until the balance is gone, and it stops at 600 months if it has not finished. Six hundred months is fifty years.
Interest over that time
Total interest is everything you pay minus the starting balance, over those months. A small minimum on a high rate produces a long date and a large interest total.
Raising the minimum on that row shortens its own date. It also changes how any extra payment is shared, because the share follows the minimums.
The month shows the date
Under the household month, each named debt gets a line: the month it ends, “paid off now,” or a note that the payment does not cover the interest.
That line uses the same split of extra money as the debt calculator.
This explains how WiseCalculator treats the numbers you type. It is not a lender’s offer and it is not advice for your loan.
More in Debt
- A payment that does not cover interestIf the payment is not larger than a month of interest, the balance never falls. The date says the payment does not cover the interest.
- Extra money is split by the minimumsAn extra monthly amount is shared across debts in proportion to each minimum payment. It is not sent entirely to the highest rate.
- Interest with and without an extra paymentThe debt screen compares interest and time at your minimums with interest and time after the extra is split.