APR

Minimum payment calculator: how long a card really takes

The minimum payment is not a repayment plan. It is the smallest amount that keeps your account tidy, and it is built to shrink as your balance shrinks, so it never quite catches up with you. Put your own numbers in below and watch it happen.

The short answer

A UK minimum payment is normally 1% of what you owe plus that month's interest, with a floor of around £5. Because it is a percentage, it falls every single month, which stretches the debt out for decades. On £1,200 at 34.9% the first minimum is £42.31, and paying only the minimum takes 22 years and costs £2,784 in interest. Paying that same £42.31 every month instead clears it in 4 years and 3 months for £938. Same first payment. Eighteen years of difference.

Put your own numbers in

What is on the card

The card's APR

It is on your statement and in the app. The average UK card is about 36.8%. Store cards are usually higher.

Or pay this much every month instead

Try it with a fiver more and watch what a fiver does.

This runs entirely on your own phone or computer. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, stored, or seen by us. There is no account, no cookie for this, and no data leaves the page.

Why the minimum shrinks

Most UK cards work out the minimum as a percentage of the balance plus that month's interest and fees, or a flat floor of about £5 to £25, whichever is larger. The percentage is commonly 1%, sometimes up to 2.5%.

Look at what that does. If the minimum is 1% of the balance plus the interest, then every month the interest gets paid off and the debt itself falls by exactly one per cent. One per cent of a shrinking number is a shrinking number. The payment gets smaller every month, forever, and the finish line keeps stepping away from you.

It is a curve that heads towards zero and never arrives. What eventually rescues it is the £5 floor, which is why the last few hundred pounds go faster than the first few hundred.

Same first payment, two completely different lives

This is the whole point, and it is worth saying with the numbers on the table.

On £1,200 at 34.9%, your first minimum payment is £42.31. Whichever route you take, month one costs you exactly the same.

Let the minimum fall: 22 years, £2,784 of interest, £3,984 handed over for £1,200 of stuff.
Freeze it at £42.31: 4 years 3 months, £938 of interest, £2,138 in total. You save £1,846 and nearly eighteen years.
Freeze it and add £25: 2 years dead, £415 of interest. A saving of £2,369 for the price of a takeaway a month.

Nothing changed about your income. Nothing changed about the card. The only difference is whether you let the number shrink.

The rule that exists because of this

There is a UK rule aimed squarely at this, and its definition tells you everything.

You are in persistent debt when, over 18 months, "the amount you have paid in interest, fees and charges is bigger than the amount of borrowed money that you have paid back". That is National Debtline's wording, and it is not describing a disaster. It is describing an ordinary card, paid every month, on time, using the amount printed in the box.

What happens then is a schedule. At 18 months your lender must write and explain that paying more would cost you less. At 27 months they must write again. At 36 months they must try to actually contact you, help you find a faster way to repay, and they may suspend the card. Past that, they should offer a way to clear it in under four years, which can include cutting or writing off interest.

Ask the question this site always asks. Why did anyone need to write that rule? Because the product does this on its own, at scale, to people who are doing exactly what they were told.

Where this will be wrong

The model above is honest about its own limits.

Your card's formula may differ. We use 1% plus interest with a £5 floor, which is the common shape. Some cards use 2% or 2.5%, and some have a floor of £25. Check your terms.
It assumes you stop spending on the card. New purchases are not modelled. In real life they are the reason most balances never fall.
0% promotional periods are not modelled. If you are inside one, your position is much better than this shows, right up until the day it ends.
Fees, charges and late payments are not modelled. Real life adds them.
Cash withdrawals are worse than this. They usually carry a fee and start charging interest immediately, with no interest free period at all.

Trap ahead: the minimum is a marketing number, not a plan

Nothing about the minimum payment feels like a mistake. It is printed in its own box on the statement. It is the amount already filled in when you open the app. It is the direct debit option the bank offers first. Meeting it every month keeps your credit file clean, which is exactly why it feels like the responsible choice. It is not a plan for getting out of debt. It is the smallest payment that keeps you in one, and the fact that it shrinks as you pay is not a bug in the design. It is the design.

The moves

Screenshot this bit

Freeze the number. Whatever this month's minimum is, set a standing order for that amount and never let it fall. It costs you nothing today and it is worth years.
Add whatever you can on top, and add it early. Every extra pound comes straight off the balance, and the earlier it lands the more interest it kills.
Pay the highest APR first if you have more than one card. Same money, more of it working.
Never take cash out on a credit card. Fee on the way out, interest from day one, and it looks bad on your file.
Count 18 months. If you have been paying minimums for a year and a half, you are at or near the persistent debt line and a letter is coming. Act before it does and you keep the choices.
If the honest answer is that it will not clear, get free advice today. StepChange, National Debtline and Citizens Advice are charities, not lenders, and they do not charge. Another card is not the answer to a card.

Check it yourself

How the minimum is worked out. Experian: what is a minimum payment on a credit card: "1-2.5% of the outstanding debt plus interest and fees, or £5 to £25 (whichever is the higher)", and the minimum must cover at least 1% of the outstanding balance. Checked 27 August 2026.
A published worked example, and our proof. The same Experian page works £2,000 at 26%: paying only the minimum "would take 25 years and 3 months to repay your debt and cost you £3,670 in interest", against 4 years 8 months and £1,297 if you keep paying the first minimum of £59. We ran their example through this calculator: it returns 25 years 2 months and £3,670, and 4 years 8 months and £1,298. That is how we know the model behaves like a real card.
The percentage plus a floor. Moneyfacts: what is a minimum payment on a credit card: a percentage of the debt or a set amount, whichever is higher.
The persistent debt rules. National Debtline: persistent debt, published by the Money Advice Trust: the 18 month definition quoted above, then letters at 18 and 27 months and required action at 36 months.
What APR actually means. Our page on APR, and the one on balance transfers for what happens when you move the debt instead of shrinking it.
The maths we use. The monthly rate is the twelfth root of one plus the APR, not the APR divided by twelve, because a card compounds monthly. Every figure on this page comes out of the calculator above, which you can check line by line.

Questions people ask

How long does it take to pay off a credit card with minimum payments?

Far longer than almost anyone guesses. On £1,200 at 34.9% it is about 22 years and £2,784 of interest. On £2,000 at 26% Experian's own figure is 25 years and 3 months and £3,670. The reason is that the minimum is a percentage of the balance, so it shrinks every month as you pay, and the debt drags on.

How is the minimum payment calculated in the UK?

Usually 1% to 2.5% of what you owe, plus that month's interest and any fees, or a flat floor of about £5 to £25, whichever is the larger. UK rules require the minimum to cover at least 1% of the outstanding balance. The exact formula is in your card's terms and it varies between issuers.

Does paying only the minimum hurt my credit score?

Paying the minimum on time is not a missed payment, so it does no direct damage. What does read badly is a card sitting near its limit month after month, because lenders see that as strain. There is also a longer term risk: after 18 months of minimums you can be flagged as being in persistent debt, and by 36 months the card can be suspended, which is visible.

What is persistent debt?

Being in persistent debt means that over 18 months you have paid more in interest, fees and charges than you have paid off the actual borrowing. Your lender must write to you at 18 months and again at 27 months, and at 36 months must try to help you repay faster and may suspend the card. It is the normal result of paying only the minimum.

Is it better to pay a fixed amount than the minimum?

Almost always, and the difference is enormous for no extra money on day one. Take today's minimum and keep paying exactly that every month rather than letting it fall. On £1,200 at 34.9% that single change takes it from 22 years to 4 years and 3 months, and saves about £1,846 in interest.

What happens if I only pay the minimum forever?

The balance does clear eventually, because the flat floor of around £5 takes over once the balance gets small. But eventually can mean two decades, and you can easily hand over more in interest than the original debt. Meanwhile the card is using up your available credit and reading as strain on your file the whole time.