Home / Tools / How to guides / Guide to Credit Cards / Paying your credit card bill / Choosing how much of your credit card balance to pay off
9.1 Choosing how much of your credit card balance to pay off
The first thing you need to do when you receive your credit card bill is decide how much you are going to pay off that month.
Your bill will tell you the total amount owing on your card and the minimum repayment required.
You have three payment options:
- Pay off the full balance
- Pay off the minimum repayment
- Pay off an amount that is more than the minimum repayment but not the full balance.
You will have to pay at least the minimum repayment by the due date or your credit card company will fine you a maximum of £12 for not paying your bill on time.
If you choose to only pay the minimum repayment it will take you significantly longer to clear your credit card balance and cost you more in the long run.
By paying off the balance in full, you will save yourself further interest charges.
If you pay off the balance created by making new purchases that month, you will not be charged any interest at all.
By paying off sums larger than the minimum repayment, you will reduce the amount of interest you pay in subsequent months and in the long run, because you will clear your balance more quickly.
The amount you can afford to pay above the minimum repayment will depend on the amount of spare cash you have left at the end of the month but, the quicker you can repay your credit card debt the better it will be for your wallet.
If you are in the middle of a 0% interest deal your minimum repayments will go further because they won’t be eaten up by interest charges. However, if you can try to pay off your entire credit card balance within the interest-free period, you will end up paying no interest at all for the credit facility.
Home / Tools / How to guides / Guide to Credit Cards / Paying your credit card bill / Choosing how much of your credit card balance to pay off
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Please ensure that you fully read the terms & conditions of any product or policy before you decide to proceed and are fully aware of the total costs and the benefits and any exclusions or limitations applicable to the product or plan.
Please note that the product links will take you direct to the Issuer or Insurer's site direct and we cannot be held responsible for the information which they provide within their own sites. On some comparison tables we use a star rating which rates products by visitor popularity.