Lily Blacker / 21 June 2025 / Categories: City, Services, Useful Guides

MNBA Credit Cards and minimum payment calculations

It’s probably not only MNBA I just got a shock and learned something new

I want to begin by saying MNBA haven’t done anything wrong. When you sign up for credit card you agree to their terms and conditions and although my experience was with MNBA the way interest and minimum payments are calculated is pretty much the same whoever you bank with or hold a credit card with.

I just had an experience that was a surprise to me so wanted to give everyone the heads up.

Last month I paid off a significant portion of my credit card about 90% I took out a personal loan for a better interest rate to save money and get my monthly payment down.

However this month, even though the balance was so significantly reduced I was hit with an unexpected minimum payment 50% higher than it was before I paid off the large amount.

I have discovered this is because the minimum payment is not calculated on what is actually owed today but the statement balance at the beginning of the previous month.

So paying off a large portion of a credit card doesn’t help with your minimum payment the next month unless you pay off the balance in full.

It is only the following month when the interest is recalibrated on the significantly lower balance that the minimum payment is adjusted.

It is noteworthy to add, when I tried to understand what had happened when the much larger than average payment was taken which I hadn’t budgeted for the assistants on the chat line didn’t explain in simple terms why I had had the unexpected hike in minimum payment even though my statement balance was reduced by 90%.

They just kept on citing the rules which just didn’t make any sense. So I ended up paying off the whole thing in frustration without any explanation.

I later found out online why this had happened and that the next month the new minimum payment would be calculated on the new much lower balance, so my fear of the minimum payment remaining at the very high amount was unjustified.

Sadly no one at MNBA was able to explain this to me.

To recap, even if you pay a big portion of your credit card off, unless you pay it all, the next month your minimum payment will jump, it is not until the following month you will see the minimum payment come down. When paying down debt you need to keep money aside to cover this unless you can clear any balance in full.

In MNBA’s defense their website does have a pretty comprehensive and straight forward help section with guides and simple examples although I couldn’t find anywhere the information I needed about paying off a significant portion of your balance, not the full amount and how that could make your minimum payment jump the next month, as it is calculated from the statement balance before you made the payment.