This article is dedicated to giving you a Credit Card Debt Payoff Calculator. My intention is to provide you an easy way to determine which credit card to focus your payments on, and simultaneously predicting the number of months left to pay on all your cards. Now, the spreadsheet shown below is an outlandish situation, but I wanted to show you an extreme circumstance, and how to use the spreadsheet. Ok, enough introduction, let’s get into the details of the spreadsheet.

Here are the quick and dirty directions to inputting the data:

  1. Delete all the rows that you don’t need. Trim it down to just the number of cards you are running balances on.
  2. Determine how much money you can devote to all of your credit cards per month, and enter that number in the cell labeled Available to Pay.
  3. Update the Balance column to reflect your current balance on each credit card.
  4. Update the Interest Rate column per your agreement with each credit card.
  5. Enter the minimum payment for each card in the Minimum Payment column (the default method uses a calculation based on 2% of the balance, you may update this function per your card agreement, to minimize the maintenance necessary on the spreadsheet; post a comment at the end of this article if you need help).

Credit Card Debt Payoff Calculator
http://personalfinanceresources.com
*Be sure that the interest rates you input are different, if they are the same, change one by .001 for example, to ensure they are different.
Input Area Automatic Calculation Area
Available to Pay $750.00 Maximum Interest Rate Charged 22.50%
Balance Interest Rate Minimum Payment Months Left to Pay Credit Card to Focus On Amount to Pay Per Card Months Left to Pay Using Debt Stacking
Credit Card 1 $3,000.00 12.00% $60.00 69.3 $60.00 69.3
Credit Card 2 $4,000.00 10.50% $80.00 65.8 $80.00 65.8
Credit Card 3 $2,000.00 13.75% $40.00 74.3 $40.00 74.3
Credit Card 4 $1,000.00 12.99% $20.00 72.0 $20.00 72.0
Credit Card 5 $500.00 18.75% $10.00 97.3 $10.00 97.3
Credit Card 6 $250.00 21.25% $5.00 122.4 $5.00 122.4
Credit Card 7 $1,000.00 15.75% $20.00 81.4 $20.00 81.4
Credit Card 8 $1,500.00 15.00% $30.00 78.5 $30.00 78.5
Credit Card 9 $2,500.00 13.99% $50.00 75.0 $50.00 75.0
Credit Card 10 $3,000.00 12.50% $60.00 70.6 $60.00 70.6
Credit Card 11 $2,000.00 17.75% $40.00 91.0 $40.00 91.0
Credit Card 12 $1,000.00 19.50% $20.00 103.0 $20.00 103.0
Credit Card 13 $500.00 14.25% $10.00 75.9 $10.00 75.9
Credit Card 14 $750.00 13.75% $15.00 74.3 $15.00 74.3
Credit Card 15 $1,000.00 22.50% $20.00 147.9 This One $290.00 3.6
Totals/Averages $24,000.00 15.62% $480.00 1298.6
$750.00 1154.3


After you have inputted the necessary data, you will see the results in the automatic calculation area of the spreadsheet. Pay attention to the row that has “This One” in the Credit Card to Focus On column. The spreadsheet identifies the highest interest rate card, and calculates the maximum payment possible, based on making minimum payments to the other cards, and subtracting that from the amount available to pay (refer to my article on debt stacking for further details). Hopefully, you will see a nice small number of months left to pay for the corresponding card.

The process is a baby step approach to paying off debt. Once upon a time, I was heavily in debt, and utilized a spreadsheet like this to focus on paying off the worst offending credit card, then the next one, and so on. Once you are finished paying off a credit card, delete the corresponding row, and the spreadsheet will update itself to reflect the next credit card to pay down, and the corresponding payment to make. This will help you to organize and attack that ugly debt, and pay it off in the most efficient manner. You may download the xls spreadsheet here:

Credit Card Debt Payoff Calculator.xls


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