Credit Card Payoff Calculator UK
Try your card’s minimum payment first, then try a fixed £100 or £150 and compare the months and the interest. The minimum is usually a percentage of the balance (often around 2–3%) or a fixed floor such as £25, whichever is higher — and it falls as the balance falls, which stretches the debt out for years.
Model: interest is added monthly at APR ÷ 12 on the outstanding balance, then your payment is taken off. The last payment is smaller than the rest. If your payment is less than the monthly interest, the balance grows and the calculator says so instead of giving a date.
How the maths works
Credit card interest is charged monthly on the outstanding balance. At 24.9% APR, the monthly rate is 24.9 ÷ 12 = 2.075% a month. On a £2,000 balance, the first month’s interest is £41.50. If you pay £100, £41.50 of it is interest and only £58.50 comes off the balance. Next month the balance is £1,941.50, the interest is £40.29, and £59.71 comes off. Each month the interest shrinks a little and the capital repayment grows a little — the same pattern as a loan, but with one crucial difference: on a loan the payment is fixed and the term is fixed, so the debt must end. On a card, the minimum payment falls as the balance falls, so the debt can drag on for a decade or more.
The break-even point is simple: if your payment is less than the monthly interest, the balance grows. On £2,000 at 24.9%, any payment under £41.50 makes the debt bigger. On £5,000 at 29.9%, the first month’s interest is £124.58 — a £100 payment makes that debt grow too. That is why the calculator’s first job is to tell you whether your payment clears the debt at all, before it tells you when.
The same £2,000, four different payments
| Monthly payment | Months to clear | Total interest | Total paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| £40 | Never — balance grows | — | — |
| £50 | 87 months | £2,278.05 | £4,278.05 |
| £100 | 27 months | £521.27 | £2,521.27 |
| £150 | 16 months | £331.64 | £2,331.64 |
Paying £150 instead of £50 saves about £1,946 in interest and clears the debt 71 months sooner — nearly six years. Paying £100 instead of £50 saves about £1,757 and clears it in less than a third of the time. Every extra pound a month goes straight to the capital, because the interest is already covered — so the return on paying more is the APR itself, 24.9% in this example. There is no savings account that pays 24.9%.
What to do if the minimum is all you can pay
If £40 a month is genuinely all you can afford, the honest answer is that the debt will not fall, and you need a different plan. First, stop using the card — every new purchase adds interest on top of interest. Second, check whether a 0% balance transfer card could move the debt somewhere interest-free for a year or more; the transfer fee is usually 2% to 4% of the balance, which is far cheaper than 24.9% APR, but only if you clear the debt before the 0% period ends and you do not run up the old card again. Third, talk to a free debt adviser — StepChange and Citizens Advice in the UK give free, impartial advice and can set up a payment plan that freezes interest. They are not loan companies and they do not charge. Fourth, check whether the APR itself is the problem: cards for people with poor credit charge 34.9% to 42.9% APR, and at those rates even a £100 payment on £2,000 barely moves the balance. Do not take a payday loan or a second card to pay the first — that is how a £2,000 problem becomes a £10,000 problem.
Five habits that keep a card clear
- Pay a fixed amount, not the minimum. Set up a standing order for a fixed sum on payday, before you spend it on anything else.
- Pay in full when you can. Paying the statement balance in full every month means no interest at all, and the card costs you nothing.
- Never just pay the minimum. It is calculated to keep the debt alive. If the statement says “minimum £40”, that is a floor, not a suggestion.
- Do not use the card for cash. Cash withdrawals attract interest immediately, with no interest-free period, plus a fee of around 3%.
- Check the APR on the statement. If it has risen, or if you are on a high-APR card, a balance transfer or a cheaper card may be worth looking at — but only after the spending stops.
What your statement’s payoff warning means
Since the Financial Conduct Authority’s persistent debt rules, your credit card statement must show you how long it would take to clear the balance by paying only the minimum, and how much interest that would cost. That figure is often shocking — on a £2,000 balance it can be many years, with interest well over £1,000. The rules also require card firms to contact customers who have paid little more than the interest over a long period, and to offer help, which can include a repayment plan or suspending interest. If your card firm writes to you about persistent debt, do not ignore the letter: it is the point at which the firm must act, and it is also the point at which a repayment plan is usually cheapest.
One warning about balance transfers: the 0% period is real, but the fee is not free money. A 3% fee on a £2,000 transfer is £60, and if you do not clear the balance before the 0% period ends, the remaining balance moves to the card’s standard APR, which can be 24.9% or higher. Set up a fixed monthly payment that clears the transferred balance a month before the 0% period ends, put it in your diary, and do not spend on the new card — purchases on a balance transfer card usually attract interest immediately, even while the transferred balance is at 0%. Used carefully, a transfer can save hundreds of pounds. Used carelessly, it just moves the debt and adds a fee.
Related: Car Finance Settlement Calculator · ISA Savings Calculator · Take Home Pay Calculator
Sources: Financial Conduct Authority, credit card rules (minimum payments, persistent debt); StepChange and Citizens Advice (free debt advice). The payoff maths is a standard monthly-interest simulation; the APR and payment are inputs you change to match your statement. Checked 13 November 2026.