What is a minimum payment?
When you have a credit card, you have to make payments towards your credit card balance. For a recurring payment like a Direct Debit, you can choose one of 3 options when making a payment:
- Your full balance.
- A fixed amount of your choice.
- The minimum payment amount.
You can also choose to make a manual payment any time you like and for any amount. Find out more about making payments on our Ways to pay page.
Your minimum payment amount is shown on your credit card statement and is labelled as 'the minimum amount due'. This is the minimum amount that you must pay each month towards your credit card balance.
The minimum payment amount is a percentage of your total credit card balance. At Vanquis this depends on the APR for your specific credit card. It will also include any fees you need to pay and the interest charged on your account since your last statement.
Make sure you continue paying at least the minimum monthly payment on your credit card. Missed and late payments will lead to extra fees and charges and could damage your credit rating. This would make it more difficult to obtain credit in the future. You can read more about our fees & charges on our credit card charges page.
Choosing how much to pay
When considering how much of your credit card balance to pay, we recommend trying to pay more than the minimum amount each month.
If you can afford to pay more than the minimum amount, the quicker your balance reduces, and the less interest you pay.
If you're concerned about not being able to pay, take a look at our Money Worries page to see how we can help.
How long it takes to pay off your balance when making the minimum payment
The graphic below shows an example of how long it could take to pay off your credit card balance when making the minimum payment each month. This example is based on a £250 purchase on a credit card with an APR of 39.9%:
In the above scenario, by paying £50 monthly instead of your minimum payment, you would have:
- Saved £107 in interest
- Cleared your balance 2 years and 5 months earlier
This example assumes the following: The transaction takes place on 1st January and you make no further transactions. Your statement is produced on the 1st of each month and you always make the payment each month on the 15th. Your statement is produced 31 days after you make the purchase. In this example you would make 5 payments of £50 followed by a smaller final payment to clear your balance.
