How to use this UK credit card payoff calculator
A credit card payoff calculator answers two questions a statement buries: how long a balance takes to clear at your current APR, and whether a 0% balance transfer is worth the fee. UK issuers compete hard on those promotional deals. This tool runs the comparison in pounds in your browser.
- Enter the balance, APR, and payment. Use the statement balance you actually carry, the purchase (or cash) APR you are paying, and a payment you can sustain — not the minimum, unless that is truly all you can pay.
- Read months to payoff and total interest. If the payment does not cover monthly interest, the balance never clears. Raise the payment before you shop transfers.
- Add transfer fee and promotional months. Typical UK 0% balance-transfer offers last 12–29 months and charge around 0%–3.5% of the amount moved. The fee is added to the transferred balance. During the 0% window, payments go to capital.
- Set how much to transfer. Drag the slider if you will only move part of the balance. The rest stays on the current APR, and the monthly payment is split across both pots in proportion to what you owe.
- Check interest saved. If the fee plus leftover interest is still below staying put, the transfer is doing real work. If you cannot clear the balance in the promo, leftover interest at the go-to rate can erase the saving.
- Save the plan. Optional history keeps this path for seven days so you can compare a second card’s representative APR.
The math assumes a fixed payment and a constant APR after the promo. It does not model new spending, changing minimums, or default rates. Close or stop using the old card for purchases if you transfer.
Why UK 0% transfers need a payoff date, not a headline
A 24.9% APR on a £4,000 balance with a £150 payment can cost hundreds of pounds before the debt is gone. A 0% offer looks free until the fee and the go-to rate show up. Putting both paths on one screen is the only honest way to decide.
- The minimum payment trap. UK minimums are often interest plus 1% of capital, or a low floor. Typing a real budget number — even £25 more — often cuts years off the schedule.
- Fee versus interest saved. A 2.99% fee on £4,000 is about £120. If staying costs £800 in interest, the offer wins. If you still owe money when 0% ends, the go-to APR starts on day one of month 29.
- Eligibility is not the same as the representative APR. Advertised 0% deals are representative: a majority of accepted customers get that rate, not everyone. Use this calculator on the offer you were actually given.
- Section 75 and balance transfers. Moving a purchase can change how consumer-credit protections apply. That is a legal point, not a math point — read the new card’s terms.
- No credit search to run the numbers. Playing with balances does not touch your file. Applying for the transfer will.
Barclaycard, 0% wars, and the browser worksheet
UK revolving credit scaled with Barclaycard in 1966 and Access in 1972. For decades, interest was something you spotted as a line on a paper statement, not a payoff date. The Consumer Credit Act and later FCA rules forced clearer APRs and, eventually, representative examples in advertising.
Balance-transfer price wars from the 2000s onwards made 0% a household product: long promotional windows, a fee, then a go-to rate. Debt charities and MoneyHelper-style worksheets taught the same comparison this page encodes: stay versus transfer, including the fee. Browser calculators simply moved that worksheet off a spreadsheet.
Use the numbers as a map. A transfer still requires an application, a credit decision, and the discipline not to spend on two cards at once. This tool is not debt advice and not a debt-management plan.