If you are serious about paying off credit debt, you might want to spend a little extra time on this page. This debt calculator will help you to see at the current rate that you are paying how long it will take you to pay off your credit cards and how much it will cost you. What is your total credit debt? What are your total monthly payments? What is the interest rate you are paying? (% APR)  At the current payment, it will take you months to pay off your debt. By the time you pay it off the total payments will have been and you will have paid a total of in interest. I find it useful to enter my payments and APR as it is now and then what I would like it to be. If you have been to our How it Adds Up page, you might be interested in seeing how much difference it makes to cut something out of your monthly budget and apply the extra money to your credit debt. As an example, if you are considering cutting a $20 pizza twice a month, you might enter the information as it now is and then increasing the payment by the $40 you would have saved by NOT buying the extra pizzas.

Pay extra attention to the interest. Unless you have an investment that is earning significantly more interest than the interest you are paying, the interest you are paying is simply money that is wasted. I talk to people who have credit cards with a high interest rate and are maintaining savings or retirement accounts earning low rates of interest. If you are paying 13% interest on a credit card and putting money into a retirement account earning 5%, you would be better off paying off the debt first.