20 Must-Know Credit Card Minimum Payment Statistics

When you have a credit card bill, you often see several figures, including the statement balance, the minimum payment, and the current APR. Those are all numbers to know, but the most important thing to know about the minimum payment is something you won’t see on your statement.

If you make only the minimum payment, you could end up adding thousands of dollars and years of payments before your credit card debt reaches $0.

Many consumers know that making the minimum payment isn’t the best way to tackle debt. But if they’re struggling with other areas of their finances, paying down credit card debt may take a back seat. 

And this often doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Individual financial issues are often caused by conditions in the overall economy that affect millions of people.

Here are some eye-opening stats on how many consumers are making the minimum payments on their credit cards:

Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that about 10.24% of consumers made the minimum payment on their credit cards in the first quarter of 2026.¹ 

Quarter	Share Making Minimum Payment Only
Q1 2025	10.54%
Q2 2025	10.83%
Q3 2025	10.71%
Q4 2025	10.84%
Q1 2026	10.24%

This is down slightly compared to the first quarter of 2025, when about 10.54% of people were making only the minimum payment. But it still shows that a significant number of consumers may have trouble keeping pace with the interest rates on their credit card debt.

It’s no secret that the end of the year is the worst when it comes to people only making minimum payments on their cards. In 2025, Q4 saw that year’s highest minimum-payment rate (10.84%), continuing a pattern seen in prior years.¹ 

People tend to run up a high balance during the holidays, which they typically pay down in the first quarter, as the data again showed the rate fell to 10.24% in Q1 2026.

As of the second quarter of 2026, the average household credit card balance stood at roughly $11,313 (adjusted for inflation), still near historical highs.² 

Average Credit Card Balance

(Household, Inflation-Adjusted, Q2 2026)

$0$11,313

This is an especially big problem for those only paying the minimum each month. That’s because the interest keeps adding up, and the minimum payment doesn’t cover much of the actual balance. 

That can mean rising minimum payment amounts alongside rising debt.

While the economy is doing well for the upper class, other consumers are struggling to pay their bills. A January 2026 survey found that only 12% of workers said their pay had kept up with inflation, and just 17% said they felt financially secure enough to cover essentials and save.

How Workers Feel About Pay

Source: Resume Now, Cost-of-Living Crunch Report

An overwhelming 92% reporting they'd cut back spending, including on essentials, over the prior year.³ 

Source: Resume Now, Cost-of-Living Crunch Report (Jan. 2026)

This kind of financial squeeze may help explain why more than 10% of cardholders make only the minimum payment. When a paycheck doesn't stretch far enough to cover rising costs, the credit card minimum may be the only payment that still fits the budget.

As credit card balances continue to rise, many issuers are increasing their standards and approving fewer cardholders. The rise in minimum payment rates may contribute to issuers' skepticism about approving less-qualified applicants.

In Q2 2026, 2% of US banks reported tightening credit card lending standards, but that exploded to 6.7% in Q3 2026, indicating a massive shift.⁴

Part of the reason minimum credit card rates may be so high right now is that consumers are relying on credit cards to cover a large share of their expenses.

Consumer Payment Methods

Source: The Federal Reserve's Diary of Consumer Payment Choice

• Credit card
• Debit card
• Cash
• Other

The most recent Diary of Consumer Payment Choice from the Federal Reserve found that about 1 out of every 3 transactions is made with a credit card.⁵ 

Each one of those transactions adds to a balance that a minimum payment barely dents.

The more purchases you make on credit cards, the larger the debt your minimum payment is trying to chip away at.

And if consumers use credit cards to pay for living or everyday expenses, they may struggle to pay more than the minimum without more income.

When you only make the minimum payment on your credit card balance, it can take years or even decades to pay down the balance. 

For example, at the average 2026 credit card APR of roughly 22.15%, a consumer with a $5,000 balance making only minimum payments could take well over a decade to pay it off, and pay more in interest than the original balance.⁶

Paying down the balance quickly is difficult unless you pay more than the minimum.

Research from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that the average minimum payment is nearly $130 for revolving credit card debt.⁷ For private label cards, the average minimum rose to $81, up from $69.

Higher minimum payments could be a key reason why more and more people are struggling to pay down their debts.

The CFPB report also found that cardholders with subprime credit scores make minimum-only payments at a higher rate (31%) than cardholders with deep subprime scores (26%), even though deep subprime is the riskier tier.⁷ 

Credit Tier	Share Paying Only the Minimum
Deep subprime	26%
Subprime	31%
Near-prime	29%

One likely explanation is that deep subprime cardholders are more likely to fall behind and miss payments. In contrast, subprime cardholders are more likely to be making payments consistently, just at the minimum. 

But near-prime cardholders aren't far behind either group, at 29%.

Only making the minimum payment, especially when interest rates for credit cards are at near all-time highs, means that you could be paying more and more in total interest.

A 2025 CFPB report tracks this through a measure called "persistent debt," defined as accounts in which interest and fees exceed half of what's actually paid each year, meaning interest and fees outweigh the principal portion of each monthly payment.⁷ 

By that measure, 13% of general-purpose credit card accounts were affected by persistent debt, up from the previously reported 9.9%.

For some people, even making the minimum payment is difficult to keep up with.⁷ According to the CFPB report, cardholders with deep subprime credit scores carried a revolving balance from one month to the next 88% of the time on general purpose cards, compared to just 20% for those with superprime scores. 

Credit Tier	Share Carrying a Balance Month-to-Month
Deep subprime	88%
Subprime	83%
Near-prime	72%
Prime	49%
Prime plus	42%
Superprime	20%
Overall	49%

That means an overwhelming majority of deep-subprime cardholders aren't paying off their balances each month. That can add a lot of interest over time and make minimum payments slowly tick up.

The data shows that subprime and prime borrowers make only the minimum payment at very different rates. On general-purpose cards, 31% of subprime cardholders and 29% of near-prime cardholders made only the minimum payment, compared to just 6% of superprime cardholders.⁷

On private-label cards, the gap is similar, but the percentages are higher: 35% of subprime cardholders paid only the minimum, compared to 8% of superprime cardholders.

Late fees can cause your minimum payment to increase, and those with the lowest credit scores pay the most late fees on average, according to the 2025 report from the CFPB.⁷ 

0.73.7 Average Credit Card Late Fees Per Year for Deep-Subprime Cardholders

Cardholders with credit scores of 579 or below incur 3.7 late fees per year on average on general-purpose cards.

That's a far cry from cardholders with scores of 800 or above, who average 0.2 late fees per year.

For general-purpose cards, people with the lowest scores had the highest average minimum payment, at $171, compared to $74 for people with the best scores (more than double).⁷

For store-brand cards, the lowest-scoring group owed $135 on average, more than double the $65 owed by the top-scoring group.

If you charted out minimum payments and credit scores, you wouldn’t get a straight line. As we’ve covered, cardholders with the best scores had the lowest average minimum payment at $74, while cardholders with the worst scores had the highest at $171.

Credit Tier	General Purpose
Deep subprime	$171
Subprime	$106
Near-prime	$115
Prime	$146
Prime plus	$134
Superprime	$74
Overall	$129

But people with credit scores in the middle don’t fall in line. Near-prime ($115) and subprime ($106) cardholders actually had lower average minimums than prime ($146) and prime-plus ($134) cardholders.⁷

That could be because prime-tier cardholders tend to carry bigger balances, even though fewer of them are stuck paying only the minimum. 

One of the main reasons that the average minimum credit card payment could be so high for cardholders with good credit is that they often have access to higher credit limits.

If you have a high credit limit, you may spend more and have a higher balance, which will lead to a higher minimum credit card payment.

Analysis of the CFPB's 2025 report notes that average minimum payments rose across all credit tiers, even though minimum-payment formulas remained largely unchanged. That likely means that the increase was driven by bigger balances, not stricter math.⁸

A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed that the percentage of cardholders paying their balance in full reached an all-time high in Q1 2026. It also found that the percentage of those paying either the minimum or something above the minimum (but below the full balance) has declined for seven consecutive quarters.⁹

The report points to rising interest rates as a possible reason, as the average general-purpose card APR sits around 24%. Just to clarify, that 24% is among large banks, but the Federal Reserve Board's broader 22.15% I mentioned earlier is the national average across all reporting banks.

Still, that high interest means more cardholders (who can afford to) are choosing to avoid interest altogether by paying in full during their grace period.

The share of credit card debt that's seriously delinquent (90+ days past due) climbed to 13.1% in early 2026, the highest level in 15 years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.¹⁰ 

Serious Delinquency Rates Since 2022

Source: NY Fed / Liberty Street Economics

The more people who can only afford minimum payments, the larger the seriously overdue debt tends to grow. But the report notes part of the rise in delinquency rates reflects old debt lingering on credit reports longer than it used to, rather than a fresh wave of new missed payments.

But not being able to keep up with monthly payments and high interest rates certainly contributes heavily to people defaulting on their credit cards.

During 2021, more cardholders could afford to pay their credit card bills in full, and total balances had actually bottomed out at $770 billion that year. 

Since then, total balances reached $1.263 trillion by Q2 2026¹¹, and as more people make only minimum payments, the unpaid card debt will keep growing right along with it.

According to LendingTree, more than half of Gen Z are making only minimum monthly payments on their credit cards, a much higher share than older generations.¹² 

The report attributes this to younger generations opening credit card accounts faster than previous ones did, and often using cards as a financial cushion for everyday bills.

Also revealed by the survey, 43% of Gen Z respondents think of a credit card as their emergency fund, and 6 in 10 mistakenly believe that carrying a small balance helps their credit score.

There are so many data sets that can indicate how well the economy, or consumers in general, are doing. Some people rely on unemployment figures, while others think the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the biggest indicator. 

But it's worth keeping an eye on how many people are paying only the minimum on their credit cards, too. This is just one factor that shows consumers may be experiencing financial issues. 

And it makes sense: If you’re having cash flow problems, then you may be trying to pay the lowest amount possible on your bills. Minimum payment behavior is one piece of the bigger picture, not a standalone alarm bell, but a number worth tracking alongside the rest.

^{1 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RCCCBSHRMIN
2 https://wallethub.com/edu/d/household-debt-report/120725
3 https://www.resume-now.com/job-resources/careers/cost-of-living-crunch-report 
4 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DRTSCLCC
5 https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/frps_cy2015_24_topline.htm
6 https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/current/
7 https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_consumer-credit-card-market-report_2025.pdf
8 https://www.orrick.com/en/Insights/2026/01/Trends-and-Takeaways-from-the-2025-Credit-CARD-Act-Report
9 https://www.philadelphiafed.org/surveys-and-data/2026-q1-large-bank
10 https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2026/08/how-distressed-are-consumers-reconciling-diverging-credit-card-delinquency-measures/
11 https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/study/credit-card-debt-statistics/
12 https://finance.yahoo.com/video/over-half-of-gen-z-is-only-paying-the-minimum-on-credit-card-debt-211500369.html}