UK credit-card balances reached £80.3 billion in April 2026, up 11.8% on the year, as households lean on revolving credit through the cost-of-living squeeze. The Bank Rate has settled at 3.75%, yet the average advertised card APR has climbed to a 20-year high of 35.8%.
Two lead figures plus four supporting metrics. Each is bound to a named primary source and last verified 3 Jun 2026.
The Bank of England’s consumer-credit release tracks total outstanding balance every month. After flattening post-pandemic, balances have grown strongly through 2025 and into 2026, up 11.8% year on year by April 2026.
Outstanding credit-card balances, calendar-year end (2026 figure is April), £bn. Interest-bearing share shown as shaded area.
End-month outstanding amounts: the source of truth for every balance figure on this page.
| Year | Total (£bn) | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 60.2 | ▼ 16.9% |
| 2021 | 59.5 | ▼ 1.2% |
| 2022 | 63.1 | ▲ 6.1% |
| 2023 | 68.5 | ▲ 8.6% |
| 2024 | 71.4 | ▲ 4.2% |
| Apr 2026 | 80.3 | ▲ 11.8% |
The headline £80bn includes both transactors (who pay in full) and revolvers (who carry interest-bearing debt). But the acceleration since 2024, £0.8bn of net new borrowing in April 2026 alone, points to more revolving credit being used to absorb cost-of-living pressure, not just more transactor spend.
The FCA’s 2016 Credit Card Market Study identified about 4 million accounts in “persistent debt”. The 2018 rules require firms to step in at 18, 27 and 36 months; roughly 950,000 customers remained in 36-month persistent debt in early 2026, and the FCA’s Consumer Duty work continues to press lenders on outcomes.
Width of bar = share of accounts. Right-hand figures = number of accounts and outstanding balance. Together they show why persistent debt is small in count but heavy in interest paid.
The FCA rules forced lenders to intervene with revolvers who weren’t making progress, offering reduced rates, term loans, or forbearance. The proportion of book in long-term persistent debt has fallen, but it has not disappeared.
Three related numbers tell the cost-of-credit story: the Bank Rate (now 3.75%), the effective rate revolvers actually pay on balances (21.2%), and the cross-market average advertised APR (35.8%, a 20-year high). The widening gap is risk repricing, not the base rate.
The effective rate on interest-bearing balances has held near 21% even as Bank Rate fell from its 2023–24 peak, so the spread has widened, not compressed.
Effective rate on interest-bearing balances vs Bank Rate.
| Period | Eff. rate | Bank Rate | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2021 | 18.0 | 0.10 | 17.9 |
| Jan 2022 | 18.4 | 0.50 | 17.9 |
| Jan 2023 | 19.8 | 3.50 | 16.3 |
| Jan 2024 | 20.9 | 5.25 | 15.7 |
| Feb 2026 | 21.7 | 3.75 | 17.9 |
| Apr 2026 | 21.2 | 3.75 | 17.5 |
Bank Rate peaked and has eased back to 3.75%, but card pricing did not follow it down. The effective rate on balances has stayed near 21%, and the average advertised APR across the market hit a 20-year high of 35.8% in early 2026 (Moneyfacts) as issuers repriced for risk. The two measures differ: 21.2% is what existing revolvers pay; 35.8% is the average headline rate advertised across all cards, including credit-builder and near-prime products.
Klarna, Clearpay and PayPal’s split-payment products are now used by around 54% of UK adults (29.9 million people). After years of consultation, the FCA assumes full regulatory authority over deferred-payment credit on 15 July 2026, the most significant shift in consumer-credit oversight in a decade.
Industry estimate to 2023; 2024 onward blends registered-firm returns with FCA consumer-outlook data. Penetration rose from ~42% in 2025 to ~54% in early 2026.
The FCA published final rules on 11 February 2026; the Temporary Permissions Regime opens for firms to register ahead of the 15 July 2026 go-live.
BNPL becomes a fully regulated form of consumer credit on 15 July 2026, with affordability checks, Section 75-style protections and FCA complaints rights. Many of the decade’s volume gains came from low-ticket retail spend that would otherwise have gone on a credit card. Whether regulation slows BNPL or simply legitimises it, and whether traditional cards reclaim share, is the defining consumer-credit question for the rest of 2026.
Business credit cards are dominated by expense management, supplier payments under £10,000, and travel. Interchange is uncapped on commercial cards, which materially changes the economics for acquirers and merchants.
For most small UK businesses, a business credit card is primarily a cash-flow and expense-control tool, not a borrowing facility. The market is increasingly split between revolving products (Capital on Tap, now offering limits up to £250,000 with 1% uncapped cashback) and zero-interest spend-management charge cards (Pleo, Moss, Spendesk) aimed at mid-market finance teams. The interchange differential is the single biggest reason merchants distinguish between consumer and commercial card acceptance.
Together they require firms to intervene with revolvers who aren’t making progress, and to demonstrate good outcomes across price, products, service and understanding.
FCA CP17/43 outcome. Lenders must step in at 18, 27 and 36 months when interest exceeds principal paid.
EU IFR extended into the UK rulebook post-Brexit. 0.3% consumer credit cap; commercial cards excluded.
New and existing products on sale; closed products from July 2024. Raises the bar across price, products, service and understanding.
FCA policy statement (11 Feb 2026). Temporary Permissions Regime opens 15 May–1 Jul 2026 ahead of go-live.
FCA assumes authority over deferred-payment credit. Affordability checks, Section 75-style protection and complaints rights apply.
A UK credit-card book in 2026 is materially less concentrated in long-term revolvers than it was a decade ago. That is a regulatory outcome, not a market one. With BNPL entering the FCA perimeter on 15 July 2026, the two unsecured-credit regimes finally converge, and the question is whether regulated BNPL pulls spend back toward, or further from, traditional cards.
Focused datasets in this series, each tracing its figures to named primary sources.
Every figure on this page maps to a named primary source. Vendor surveys, single-issuer releases, and industry “outlook” projections are excluded.
| Source | Publisher | Period covered | Type | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Money and Credit · Table A5.2 | Bank of England | Monthly, to Apr 2026 | Regulator | 3 Jun 2026 |
| Effective interest rates · IUMCCTL, IUDBEDR | Bank of England | Monthly, to Apr 2026 | Regulator | 3 Jun 2026 |
| Average advertised APR | Moneyfacts | Feb 2026 | Industry data | 3 Jun 2026 |
| Card Spending Update | UK Finance | To Feb 2026 | Industry body | 3 Jun 2026 |
| BNPL policy statement & perimeter | FCA | Feb 2026; live 15 Jul 2026 | Regulator | 3 Jun 2026 |
| Persistent debt / Consumer Duty data | FCA | 2025–26 firm returns | Regulator | 3 Jun 2026 |
| Commercial Cards Update | UK Finance | 2024 calendar year | Industry body | 3 Jun 2026 |
The Bank of England and UK Finance provide the authoritative balance and spending totals. We prefer regulator figures where there is any difference between the two.
We exclude single-issuer trading updates, “industry outlook” papers and vendor projections. They use inconsistent definitions and rarely back-revise.
The FCA’s 2018 persistent-debt definitions changed what counted as forbearance. We do not compare pre-2018 and post-2018 categories directly.
Pre-2024 BNPL figures come from industry sources with inconsistent methodology. We will replace them with FCA registered-firm returns as they become available.
Headline figures on this page are mapped to named primary sources (Bank of England, UK Finance, FCA) with Moneyfacts as a corroborating market-average source. Approximate figures marked est. are based on UK Finance estimates or BoE/FCA data extrapolations where primary-source values for the stated period are not yet confirmed. Last full review: 3 Jun 2026.