Free Tool · No signup
CareCredit deferred interest calculator.The bill if you miss the deadline.
Every CareCredit calculator on Google shows the minimum monthly payment, which is calibrated to keep you in deferred interest. This one shows the retroactive bill if you miss the deadline by a day, plus the required monthly to actually pay off in time. Free. No signup.
Your purchase
What did you finance and on what plan?
If you miss the deadline
$1,403
Retroactive interest billed if any balance remains on day 720. Calculated on an average daily balance of $2,600 at the standard APR.
Required monthly to pay off
$217.39
Pays the balance off 30 days before the deadline
Gap to your current payment
+$17.39/mo
Add this to your monthly autopay
Balance at the deadline
$200
Triggers retroactive billing on the full average daily balance
Total cost if you miss
$6,603
vs $5,000 if paid off in time
Your balance trajectory
At $200/mo you reach the deadline with $200 still owed. Synchrony bills the accrued interest retroactively on the original principal.
Defaults and assumptions last reviewed May 2026. Standard APR 26.99% per the Synchrony cardholder agreement.
Why this one
Every other calculator hides the bill.This one shows it.
Retroactive interest, not minimum payment
Synchrony's own calculator shows the minimum monthly statement payment. That number is calibrated to keep cardholders carrying a balance into the standard-APR period. Ours shows the retroactive bill Synchrony will charge if any balance remains on the deadline day.
Average daily balance methodology
The retroactive interest is not calculated on the balance remaining at the deadline. It is calculated on the average daily balance across the entire promotional period at the standard APR. Paying down most of the balance late in the promo does not reduce the retroactive interest meaningfully.
The required monthly to actually pay it off
The minimum monthly Synchrony bills you will not pay off the balance by the deadline. Our required-monthly output is the payment level that clears the balance in time with a configurable safety buffer of days before the deadline date.
How it works
The math behind the retroactive bill.
Interest accrues from day one. CareCredit is not a 0% APR promotion. The cardholder agreement applies a daily periodic rate to the average daily balance every day from the purchase date through the promotional end date. The accrued interest is held in suspense, not billed.
If you pay in full by the deadline, the accrued interest is waived. The contract terms read "no interest if paid in full within X months," and that phrasing is doing all the work. The interest was always accruing; the waiver is conditional on the deadline being met.
If any balance remains on the deadline, the entire accrued interest is billed to the account. The bill is calculated as average daily balance × daily periodic rate × number of days. For a $5,000 purchase on a 24-month promo at 26.99% APR with minimum payments, the retroactive bill commonly lands around $1,400 to $2,300, depending on payment pattern.
The required monthly to pay off in time is original principal ÷ number of months in promo. For a $5,000 purchase on a 24-month promo that is $208.34/month. Synchrony's minimum monthly payment is typically far lower (often around $50), calibrated to ensure the cardholder reaches the deadline with a balance.
The safety buffer is the number of days you want to pay off before the actual deadline. The required-monthly output above includes the buffer in the divisor: balance ÷ (months remaining − buffer / 30). A 30-day buffer protects against deadline-date confusion that catches most cardholders.
What this calculator can't see is inside the cardholder agreement itself: the late fee structure, the unilateral-change clause that lets Synchrony raise the standard APR, the arbitration clause that closes off class actions, and the autopay-discount language that varies by promotional type. Once the math works on paper, scan the agreement for what the calculator misses.
Related reading
The math is the easy part.
Questions
CareCredit calculator FAQ.
What is CareCredit deferred interest and how is it calculated?+
Deferred interest is a promotional structure where interest accrues from the date of purchase but is waived only if the entire balance is paid in full by the promotional end date. Synchrony, the issuer of CareCredit, calculates the accrued interest by applying a daily periodic rate (the standard APR divided by 365) to the average daily balance of the promotional purchase, every day from the purchase date through the promotional end date. If the balance is fully paid by the deadline, the accrued interest is forgiven. If any balance remains on the deadline, the entire accrued amount is billed retroactively to the card. The calculator above approximates this with monthly balance projections.
What happens if I miss the CareCredit promotional deadline by one day?+
Synchrony bills the accumulated deferred interest to your account. The interest is calculated on the average daily balance over the full promotional period, not on the balance remaining at the deadline. A cardholder who paid down most of the balance but misses the deadline by a day still owes interest on the much larger average balance during the early months of the promo. There is no grace period and the contract does not require Synchrony to notify cardholders before the deadline. The retroactive charge is the most common Reddit complaint about CareCredit.
How is deferred interest different from 0% APR financing?+
They are structurally different. A 0% APR promotion means no interest accrues during the promotional period. If you carry a balance past the end date, you start paying interest going forward at the standard APR, but you do not owe back-interest on the promotional period. Deferred interest means interest accrues from day one and is held in suspense, then either waived (if paid in full by the deadline) or billed retroactively (if not). Most general-purpose credit cards use 0% APR for promotions. CareCredit, most furniture-store cards, and most Synchrony-issued cards use deferred interest. Read the cardholder agreement: 'no interest if paid in full' means deferred; '0% APR' means actually 0%.
What is the standard CareCredit APR after the promotional period?+
26.99% for most cardholders, with some accounts at 32.99% depending on creditworthiness and the type of promotional offer. The standard purchase APR is variable and tied to the prime rate per the cardholder agreement, but in practice it has held at 26.99% for several years. The standard APR is the rate applied retroactively when a deferred-interest promotion is missed, and the rate that applies going forward on any balance carried after the promotional period ends. Some sub-products (CareCredit for veterinary care, CareCredit for cosmetic procedures) use the same rate structure.
How do I avoid the CareCredit retroactive interest charge?+
Pay off the full promotional balance before the deadline. The math: divide the original purchase amount by the number of months in the promotional period to get the required monthly payment. For a $5,000 purchase on a 24-month promo, that is $208.34/month. Synchrony's minimum monthly payment is typically much lower (often around $50), calibrated to keep a balance into the standard-APR period. Set your autopay to the required monthly, not the minimum. Add a 30-day buffer by paying off slightly early to protect against deadline-date confusion. Confirm the exact deadline in writing with Synchrony customer service.
Was CareCredit ever sued over deferred interest?+
In December 2013 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered GE Capital Retail Bank, the issuer of CareCredit at the time, to refund $34.1 million to over one million consumers. The CFPB found that CareCredit enrolled patients with inadequate disclosure of deferred-interest terms, often in medical or dental waiting rooms during treatment. The order required improved disclosures and consumer reimbursements. CareCredit was sold to Synchrony Bank in 2014; the underlying deferred-interest structure remains in place. Class actions against Synchrony continue to challenge the retroactive-interest mechanic broadly.