Credit Card Trap Calculator

Credit card debt grows quickly when repayments stay near minimum due. This page compares minimum-due payoff vs a fixed repayment plan so you can choose a practical monthly strategy before interest costs compound further.

The trap has a precise mechanism, and it is not the interest rate alone — it is the interaction between a high rate and a shrinkingpayment. The minimum due is typically a small percentage of the outstanding balance, so as you pay the balance down, the card asks for less each month, and your repayment effort decays exactly when it should be compounding. Card interest is also far costlier than any other mainstream consumer credit: the default 36% APR here means 3% a month, so a ₹2.5 lakh balance generates ₹7,500 of interest in the very first month. Check your own statement’s monthly rate and multiply by twelve — the number surprises most cardholders.

Run the defaults and read the two cards side by side. A ₹2.5 lakh balance at 36% APR with a 5% minimum due takes 15 years to clear on the minimum path and accumulates ₹3,40,355.73 of interest — more than the original debt. The first month explains why: the minimum due is ₹12,875, but ₹7,500 of it is interest, so only ₹5,375 reduces what you owe, and next month the card asks for slightly less.

Now hold the payment fixed at ₹15,000 — barely ₹2,000 above that first minimum due — and the same debt clears in 2 years with ₹1,01,801.47 of interest: ₹2,38,554 saved and 13 years of repayment avoided, from refusing to let the payment decay. Push to ₹25,000 and it is 13 months and ₹51,688.67 of interest. The lesson generalizes: against a percentage-based minimum, the constancy of your payment matters nearly as much as its size.

Month loop: add interest on opening balance, compute minimum due, apply either minimum due or selected fixed payment (whichever is higher in accelerated mode), then update closing balance. Repeat until payoff and track cumulative interest.