How to use this calculator
This calculator answers: How do I split my monthly budget across multiple 0% promos so everything clears before the deadlines?
Why this matters: Missing a single promo expiry can trigger penalty rates or retroactive interest that wipes out months of careful payments.
- Set your “Total monthly budget for all promo payments ($)”, then add each promo with Balance ($), expiry date, Post-promo APR (%), and “Required minimum ($)” — minimums are paid first, whatever is left goes to the riskiest promo.
- Results recalculate live as you type; the “Build my plan” button re-runs the full breakdown.
- Read “Your promo plan”: the month-by-month schedule and whether every balance clears before its expiry. Try lowering the budget until a promo misses its deadline — that’s the danger zone.
Your promos
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Your payoff plan as a spreadsheet you keep. Pro adds: the balance-transfer optimizer and extra-payment scenarios — model exactly what happens when the promo ends. One-time purchase, yours forever.
Get the Pro Dashboard — $9.99How the plan is built
- Priority order: soonest expiry first; ties broken by higher post-promo APR. This is the order that minimizes deadline misses — it's the same logic scheduling theory uses for deadlines.
- Month by month: your budget first covers the required minimum on every promo that still has a balance. Whatever is left — the discretionary dollars — funnels to the top-priority promo until it's gone, then everything rolls to the next. No interest accrues before a promo's expiry; after expiry, the remainder accrues at its post-promo APR. When a promo clears, its minimum is freed up and joins the discretionary pool automatically.
- The minimum-budget number looks at each expiry deadline in turn: all balances due by that deadline, plus the minimums still owed on longer-dated promos in the meantime, divided by the months left — and it's never less than the sum of all required minimums. The largest of those figures is the smallest fixed monthly budget that clears everything on time.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best payoff order for multiple 0% promos?
Pay the promo expiring soonest first; when two expire around the same time, prioritize the higher post-promo APR. This planner follows that order automatically: it funnels your monthly budget to the nearest expiry, then moves the freed-up money to the next one.
What is deferred (retroactive) interest?
Some store and medical credit cards charge interest on the original purchase amount all the way back to day one if any balance remains when the promo ends — even $1 left over can trigger hundreds in back-interest. This planner's post-expiry estimate assumes interest only on the remaining balance, so check your card's terms: if it has deferred interest, treat the expiry as a hard deadline.
Do I still owe minimum payments during a 0% promo?
Yes — nearly all 0% offers require at least the minimum payment each month, and a minimum payment more than 60 days late can end the intro rate early and trigger penalty pricing. This planner builds them in: enter each promo's required minimum and it comes out of your monthly budget first, before extra dollars go to the nearest expiry.Source: CFPB, Reg Z commentary — introductory rate revocation limits
What if one of my promos already expired?
Enter it with the current month as the expiry. The planner treats it as regular debt at its post-promo APR and gives it top priority, since it's already accruing interest.
How is the "minimum budget to clear everything" number calculated?
Promos are sorted by expiry. For each deadline, the balances of every promo expiring by then — plus the minimums still owed on longer-dated promos in the meantime — are added up and divided by the months to that deadline. The result is also never less than the sum of all required minimums. The largest of those figures is the smallest fixed monthly budget that can clear every promo on time.
Related calculators
- Balance Transfer — is that 0% offer actually cheaper once the transfer fee is added?
- Avalanche vs Snowball — pick the payoff order that gets you debt-free fastest.
- Debt vs Invest — guaranteed debt savings vs. expected investment growth.
Last updated: September 27, 2026