Calculator
Credit Card Balance Transfer Calculator
The credit-card balance you want to transfer.
Most Indian cards charge about 45% a year (3.75% a month).
The promotional or new card/loan rate.
One-time fee, usually 1–3% of the balance.
What you can pay each month toward the balance.
Your current-rate interest: saved vs spent
- Cost after transfer (fee + interest)₹16,61530%
- Net saving₹39,56470%
Assumes the same monthly payment in both cases and that the transfer fee is added to the balance. Promotional low rates are usually time-limited — confirm the rate after the intro period, and check for processing/GST charges. A positive net saving means the transfer is worth it.
A balance transfer moves an expensive credit-card balance to a card or loan with a lower interest rate — but a one-time transfer fee eats into the saving, so it only helps if the interest you save beats the fee. This calculator compares the interest you would pay by staying put against the fee plus interest after transferring, at the same monthly payment, and shows your net saving and how much sooner the debt clears. Use it before you accept any balance-transfer offer. (Refinancing a home loan instead? That is a different product with different costs — see the related article below.)
What your result means
- A transfer only helps if the interest you save clearly beats the processing fee plus the effort — the net-savings figure here is the number that must stay positive.
- Do not use a transfer to stretch the tenure; the goal is to pay less interest, not to lower the EMI and pay longer.
- After transferring a card balance, the plan only works if you stop spending on the old card and actually clear the transferred amount.
How to use this calculator
- Enter the balance you want to transfer and your current card’s interest rate.
- Enter the new rate the offer gives you, and the transfer fee percentage.
- Enter the monthly payment you can realistically sustain.
- Read the net saving — if it is positive, the transfer beats staying put.
- Check “months cleared sooner”, and confirm the new rate is not just a short promo that jumps later.
The formula
Net saving = (interest you would pay at the current rate) − (transfer fee + interest you pay at the new rate), holding the monthly payment constant. The transfer is worth it only when the interest saved by the lower rate is larger than the one-time fee.
Worked example
You owe ₹1,50,000 on a card at 45% and can pay ₹12,000/month. Staying put, you pay roughly ₹56,200 in interest before it clears. Transfer it to a 14% rate with a 2% fee (₹3,000): the balance becomes ₹1,53,000, interest drops to about ₹13,600, so total cost is ₹16,600. Net saving ≈ ₹39,600 — and you clear the debt about 3 months sooner. If the new rate were 36% instead, the saving would drop to roughly ₹10,500 once the fee is counted — still positive, but far less compelling.
When to use it
- Deciding whether a balance-transfer offer is actually worth the fee.
- Comparing a balance transfer against a personal loan to clear card debt.
- Seeing how much faster aggressive payments clear the transferred balance.
- Checking whether a low “intro” rate saves enough before it reverts.
Frequently Asked Questions
References & sources
How this calculator was checked: The payoff formula (the standard fixed-payment amortisation formula, applied to both the current and post-transfer balances) was checked against its derivation and re-run against the worked example on 2026-07-27 — the example previously understated both the stay-put interest and the post-transfer cost, giving a net saving of ~Rs25,500 instead of the correct ~Rs34,100; corrected to match the calculator's actual output for the default inputs. Not reviewed by a registered lending adviser. On 2026-09-16 the default current rate moved from 42% to 45% (3.75% a month in current issuer MITCs) and the example was re-run: a net saving of about Rs39,600.