Practice credit before real money is involved.

CardLab is a free credit card simulator that runs entirely in your browser. There is no sign-up, no account and no bank login: set a credit limit, an APR and a statement date, then practice purchases, payments, interest, minimum payments, utilization and a full payoff plan on a real billing cycle. Everything stays on your device - nothing is sent to a server. It uses the same simulation engine as the CardLab iPhone app, so a scenario you build here works the same way it would there.

• Average daily balance interest, on a 365- or 360-day basis
• Grace period gained, lost, and recovered
• Minimum payment rules, with negative-amortization warnings
• Payoff comparison: minimum payments only versus a fixed payment
• Credit utilization and an educational Credit Health Meter
• Rewards versus interest breakeven
• Shareable scenario links via query string

This page needs JavaScript to run the simulator. It is educational only - CardLab does not calculate or predict a real credit score.