Credit Card Payoff Calculator UK

Avalanche (pay the highest-APR card first) always costs the least interest mathematically. Snowball (pay the smallest balance first) costs slightly more but clears whole cards quickly, which keeps people motivated.

Academic work, including studies associated with Northwestern's Kellogg School and others on "small victories", finds that people following the snowball approach are often more likely to stay the course and become debt-free. If the interest difference between the two is small, choose the method you'll actually stick with.

UK lenders regularly offer 0% balance transfer cards for 18–36 months with a one-off fee of around 2–3%. Moving a £5,000 balance at a 2.9% fee costs £145 up front, trivial next to the ~£9,300 of interest the minimum-only route would cost. The key is to clear the balance before the 0% period ends, because the APR then jumps back to a typical card rate.

Plan backwards: divide the balance (plus fee) by the number of promo months to find the monthly payment that clears it in time.

Under FCA rules, if you've paid more in interest, fees and charges than you've repaid of your balance over 18 months, your lender must contact you about your "persistent debt". By around 36 months they must propose ways to repay more quickly, such as a more affordable plan.

If repayments are unaffordable, free help is available from MoneyHelper and charities such as StepChange. Options include a Debt Management Plan (DMP) or, in more serious cases, an IVA. Closing a card you've cleared can sometimes reduce your available credit and nudge your credit-utilisation ratio up, so weigh that before cancelling.