Barclaycard is making huge change to repayments and it could cost you £1,000s

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Barclaycard is cutting minimum repayments - so it means you'll likely repay less each month, but you could end up being in debt for years longer.

It also means you could end up paying hundreds or thousands of pounds more in interest, unless you act now. Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert.com website highlighted the change this week and issued a warning.

At the moment, you pay the highest of 3.75% of your balance, 2.5% of your balance plus interest, or £5. This applies to most Barclaycards including Avios, Platinum and Rewards. But from July 22, this will drop to the highest of 1% of your balance, 1% of your balance plus interest, or £5.

If you only make minimum repayments every month, MSE calculates that it would currently take nine years and eight months to clear a £1,000 balance and the total interest would be £699. But under the smaller repayments, this rises to 19 years and three months, with the interest spiralling to £1,655.

This assumes an APR of 24.9% and that you don't spend any more on the card. Barclaycard customers will be given at least 60 days' notice of the change. You won't be affected if you have a 0% interest card, which is the cheapest way to repay credit card debt. In an email to customers, Barclaycard said it is "making the changes to give you greater flexibility each month".

Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said: "This is a worryingly under-the-radar change by the UK's biggest credit card provider. Changing minimum repayments looks innocuous, even trivial - most customers will, I suspect, have ignored it.

"Yet this seemingly technical and bland change is a huge danger signal. I wish I could light up the sky with neon signs shouting that, for those unaware, if paying interest on their credit card debt, it can easily DOUBLE the total cost of debt by the time you clear what you owe, meaning you pay £100s or £1,000s more."

A Barclays spokesperson said: "We regularly review our products and from July, some Barclaycard customers will see changes to their minimum monthly payments, alongside adjustments to the APR. Customers will benefit from a reduction in their minimum monthly repayment and the vast majority have no change to APR, while some will receive a decrease."