In the past we’ve talked about the way credit cards work, such as how paying the minimum payment due each month can lead to high overall interest payments. There’s a better way to understand this though — online calculators. When you plug in your credit card details, you can get a better idea of how you’ll personally be affected by different repayment habits.

Today let’s look at two free online credit card calculators from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission: their credit card calculator and multi-loan calculator.

Credit Card Calculator

When you visit the link above, you have two options for using the calculator. You can use the online calculator right away, or you can download the calculator in Excel format to use it offline. The benefit of using the Excel version is that you can save your results. However, you can print the results using either option.

What it does — This credit card calculator is designed to show you the effects of making only the minimum payments on your credit cards. Use the calculator one time for each credit card you have, inputting your total current balance, interest rate, and minimum payment due (as a percentage of your balance). Then you’ll be able to see a graph showing you how long it will take to pay off your credit card debt in full, the total amount you’ll end up paying over that time period, and the amount of that payment which is interest.

You probably won’t like the results when you see how long it will really take you to get out of debt with minimum payments. That’s where this calculator steps up though. You can also choose a higher dollar amount for your monthly payments to find a quicker path to getting out of debt. You can view those results side by side with the minimum payment results. Play with the payment numbers a bit and see how drastic the repayment periods and total interest paid can vary!

Multi-Loan Calculator

The multi-loan calculator linked above also lets you choose between an online calculator or an Excel version to use offline. However, at the time of this article the link to their online multi-loan calculator was broken, and the Excel version was the only one accessible.

What it does — This is a more advanced (and more complicated) calculator than the simple credit card calculator above. It basically gives you the same information — how long it will take for you to get out of debt. It just lets you track that information for all of your debt (credit cards and loans) in one place rather than doing each calculation individually. It gives you a better overall picture of your financial health and current debt situation.

Again, you’ll enter your current balances, interest rates and monthly payment information. There is only one field for credit cards which allows you to enter a minimum payment percentage. If you have multiple credit cards and you plan to pay more than the minimum on any card, you can just plug their information into any loan field with a dollar amount for the monthly payment instead of a percentage. The tool also lets you compare three different repayment options to see which might help you pay off your debt the fastest or which might save you the most money in interest payments.

These two credit card calculators will help you better understand how credit cards, payments, and interest work by looking at your personal situation. They’re ideal resources for anyone looking for ways to get out of debt faster or to save money on interest.