With the Credit Card Roll-down Calculator, two principles are applied to paying off your credit card debt:

1. First, paying off your highest-interest-rate card;
2. Then, when a card's balance is paid in full, applying its monthly payment to the card with the second-highest interest rate.

To illustrate, enter your credit card balances, as well as an additional Roll-down amount. The calculator will then automatically apply your additional monthly payments to the credit card with the second-highest interest rate. When that card is paid off, the card with the next-highest rate becomes the payment focus. This process repeats until all of your credit card debt is paid in full. Simply click the "View Report" button for a look at the specific results.

This Financial Calculator requires SUN's Java Plug-in. If you see this message you will need to download SUN's Java Plug-in. This can be done automatically by clicking the yellow bar at the top of your browser and choosing Install ActiveX Control.

You can also get SUN's Java Plug-in here: Get the Java Plug-in!

For more information about this Plug-in please visit: SUN's Java Plug-in
For more information these financial calculators please visit: Financial Calculators from KJE Computer Solutions, LLC

Definitions

Payoff highest rate first

To allow the calculator to pay off your highest-rate credit card first, leave this box checked. To see the results of an alternate payment method, simply uncheck this box. The alternate calculation pay off your credit cards from lowest-balance to highest-balance.

Credit cards

You can enter up to 10 separate credit card accounts, one on each line.

Balance

This is the present balance on your credit card.

Interest rate

This is the rate which is charged or paid for the use of money. It is expressed as an annual percentage of the principal. It's calculated by dividing the amount of interest by the amount of principal. For credit cards, the rate you enter is used to figure the interest you'll pay on all future card payments. The time it takes to pay off this card may be longer than calculated if you enter a promotional interest rate that is only available for a limited time.

Payment

Refers to your beginning monthly payment. If you check the "use credit card minimum payments" box, your monthly payment is figured a 4% of your present outstanding balance. With this box checked, your monthly payment will go down as your balance is lowered; this may cause a substantial increase in the amount of time it takes to pay off your credit cards. To enter your own monthly payment (which will stay the same until your debt is paid off), uncheck this box.

(Note: The 4% level at which we calculate your minimum monthly payment is a popular industry standard used to calculate minimum payments.)

Additional payment

This is an amount you pay over your minimum monthly payments. The higher this figure, the sooner your debt will be paid off. Be sure you can afford the additional payment. You must remain consistent in your payment levels for the roll-down method to work; otherwise, you may become discouraged if you can't maintain your payment goal.