Your credit card balance: the minimum payment will increase as of August 1

The minimum amount to be paid on credit cards in Quebec will increase to 4% of the balance as of 1^er august.

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Quebecers will thus see the amount required as a minimum periodic payment on their credit card set at 4% of its balance, or half a percentage point more than currently.

This minimum amount will gradually increase each year until it reaches 5% of the balance in 2025, the Consumer Protection Office said in a press release on Tuesday.

These changes are part of the measures adopted by the government in 2017 “to prevent debt problems”. Thus, since 1^er August 2019, any new credit card contract must provide for a minimum payment that cannot be less than 5% of the balance.

Concretely, for a consumer who only repays the monthly minimum on his credit card balance, the increase of half a percentage point represents, for each $1,000 tranche, an additional payment of $5 per month.