Minimum payments are designed to keep you in debt for decades. See how long your balance would really take to clear — and how much faster a fixed monthly amount kills it. Free, instant, and nothing is recorded.
The representative APR is on your statement or app — the UK average is around 24–25%.
The trick: whatever you paid this month, keep paying that same amount every month instead of the shrinking minimum.
| Minimum only | Fixed £100 |
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Assumes no new spending on the card and a steady APR, with interest compounding monthly. Minimum payments have a £5 floor, like most UK cards. This is an illustration, not financial advice — nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere.
Most UK credit cards set the minimum payment as that month’s interest plus 1% of your balance (with a £5 floor). It sounds harmless, but notice what happens: as your balance shrinks, the minimum shrinks with it. You’re always paying just a sliver more than the interest, so the balance creeps down at a glacial pace — a £2,000 balance at a typical 24.9% APR takes around 25 years to clear and costs over £3,500 in interest.
The fix costs nothing extra today: freeze your payment instead of letting it shrink. Whatever your minimum payment is this month, set up a standing order for that amount — or better, a round number you can stick to — and keep paying it every month. The same £2,000 balance with a fixed £100 a month is gone in just over two years, for about £530 in interest.
Need to find the spare cash first? Our bill-cutting checklist routinely frees up £30+ a month in under an hour, and the salary calculator shows exactly what lands in your account each month. If you’re juggling several expensive debts, our guide to consolidating debt explains the options — and the traps.
Because it’s recalculated on your shrinking balance. Each month you pay the interest plus a tiny slice (usually 1%) of what’s left, so the payment falls as the balance falls — from £57 down to £5 on a typical £2,000 balance. The card never forces the debt to finish, and the long tail is where most of the interest builds up.
It’s in your credit agreement and on every statement, usually worded like ‘interest, plus 1% of the outstanding balance, or £5, whichever is greater’. Some newer cards use a flat percentage such as 2.5% or 3.5% instead — pick the matching rule in the calculator.
Yes — disproportionately so. The first pounds above the minimum are the most powerful, because every extra pound goes straight at the balance rather than the interest. Fixing your payment at this month’s minimum (instead of letting it shrink) can cut a 25-year payoff to under 6 years without paying a penny more per month than you already do today.
If you qualify, moving the balance to a 0% deal stops interest for the promotional period, which can save hundreds — you’ll usually pay a one-off transfer fee of around 3–4%. The catch: you need a decent credit record, and if the balance isn’t cleared when the 0% ends the leftover reverts to a high APR. Treat the 0% window as a countdown, divide the balance by the months available, and pay that fixed amount.
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Line them all up in one place and see which order clears them fastest — snowball or avalanche.
