Minimum Payment Trap Calculator – See the True Cost

Persistent Debt Costs You About £2.50 For Every £1 You Repay

That’s not an exaggeration — it’s the FCA’s own figure for what it calls “persistent debt”: paying more in interest and charges over 18 months than you actually repay of what you borrowed. Around 4 million UK credit card accounts are currently in this position, and most of the people on them have no idea, because nobody sends a headline warning — just a minimum payment figure on a statement that quietly barely moves the balance.

This calculator shows you exactly where you stand. Enter your balance, APR, and current minimum payment, and it models what actually happens — not with a simplified fixed payment, but the way your real minimum payment behaves: shrinking every month as your balance falls, which is what makes the trap so hard to see coming and so slow to escape.

You’ll get your real payoff timeline, total interest, and a live look at what paying even a little more each month actually does — plus a reverse calculator if you’d rather work backward from a target debt-free date.

Why These Numbers Might Look Worse Than Other Calculators

Most minimum payment calculators assume your payment stays the same every month forever. That’s not how credit cards actually work. Under FCA rules, your minimum payment has to cover at least 1% of your current balance plus interest — which means as your balance falls, your minimum falls too. Less money going out each month sounds good, but it means less of each payment ever reaches your actual balance, which is exactly why the “trap” in minimum payment trap is real. This calculator models that decline the way your real statement does, so the timeline and interest figure you see here are closer to what would actually happen, not a rounder, gentler estimate.

If your result shows you’re in “persistent debt” territory — paying more in interest than you’re clearing off the balance — your card provider is required to contact you about it after 18 months under FCA rules, and again at 27 and 36 months if nothing’s changed. If you’ve had one of those letters and ignored it, this is what it was warning you about.

The single biggest lever you have is the slider above — even a modest increase changes the trajectory more than most people expect, because you’re not just adding money, you’re breaking the cycle where a shrinking payment barely dents a balance that keeps generating fresh interest. If minimum payments are the only thing standing between you and a real payoff date, the AI Debt Payoff Planner builds a full strategy — Avalanche, Snowball, or a blended approach — around every debt you’re carrying, not just this one.

If a card provider or collector is already writing to you about persistent debt, card suspension, or has passed the account to a collections team, check exactly what they can and can’t do before you respond. For a full view of your options if this balance is genuinely unmanageable, see the debt payoff hub or the UK debt help hub if you’re in the UK.