Two or three credit cards, an overdraft, a minimum payment here and there. If that is your monthly routine, Updraft was built for you. Updraft is a UK lender that helps people pay off credit card debt: it shows every balance and what it is really costing you in one free app, then replaces the cards with one fixed-rate loan, one fixed monthly repayment and a known end date. The whole idea fits in three lines. See what you owe. See what it is costing you. Pay it off faster.
Most people have never seen all their card debt in one place. It lives across three apps, a statement or two and a nagging feeling at the back of the mind. The free Updraft app changes that: connect your cards and accounts, and every balance appears in one view, with the rate on each and any overdraft sitting behind it. The connection is read-only, so the app can see balances but never move money, and you can disconnect any account at any time. The vague worry finally has a number attached.
A minimum payment is designed to keep the card alive, not to clear it. What most statements never spell out is the interest you pay every month, or how long minimum payments would actually take to clear the balance. Updraft shows both: the interest running on each connected card, and a payoff timeline that puts a date on when each balance reaches zero at your current rate of payment. Alongside your balances, the app shows a free credit score and credit report, so you can watch both sides of the picture as the balances come down. And under the FCA's persistent debt rules, card providers have to contact customers who are on course to pay more in interest and charges than they are repaying of the balance. Better to see the position early, and plainly, than to find out by letter.
Here is where Updraft goes beyond watching. Updraft is a lender. Say which cards and overdrafts you want to clear, and they are replaced with one fixed-rate loan of £1,000 to £25,000: one fixed monthly repayment, a rate fixed for the whole term, and an end date you can see on the calendar. The typical loan is around £5,000, covering two or three cards with a couple of thousand pounds on each.
An arrangement fee is included in the total amount repayable and shown in the representative example, and there are no early repayment charges, so you can pay faster whenever you like. For the same monthly outgoing, more of your money goes to the balance and less to interest than staying on card minimums. And Updraft will tell you plainly if consolidation does not make sense for you, because it only does when the total cost is lower and the cards are actually cleared.
An Updraft loan is built to repay debt, not to move it. On approval, the money goes straight to your card providers, so each balance is cleared rather than shuffled, typically within days, with any remainder sent to your bank account. This is the honest difference from a balance transfer. A 0% transfer shifts the debt onto another card, and the interest returns when the promotional period ends. An Updraft loan holds one fixed rate for the whole term and finishes on a date you knew from the start.
Plenty of reliable borrowers have been turned away by a bank that only read the credit score. Updraft reads your actual income and spending, through open banking data alongside your credit file, and bases the decision on what you can genuinely afford. You start with a soft search: you see your eligibility and your rate before you commit, and a soft search does not harm your credit score. A full application is a hard search, and no honest lender can promise acceptance, but the first look costs your score nothing.
Everything Updraft offers is aimed at one outcome, paying off credit card debt faster. Three things deliver it, and they work together:
You can see exactly how paying off credit card debt works, run your own numbers in the pay off calculator, or explore the Updraft app, where every balance, rate and payoff date lives in one view.
Updraft is for working people who use credit to afford everyday life and want to tidy it up, from London through Birmingham to Glasgow. Most members are in full-time work, with a regular income, a UK bank account and balances they want gone. You will probably recognise yourself in one of these:
Updraft is not for everyone. It is for people with regular income, and it is a regulated loan, not debt advice or debt relief. If you are in financial difficulty, free help from StepChange, National Debtline, Citizens Advice or MoneyHelper is the better place to start.
More than one million members have used Updraft, and over £750 million of credit card and overdraft debt has been paid off (company-stated, September 2026). Updraft is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference number 810923, and operates as Fairscore Ltd, Companies House number 10868865. Lending is backed by institutional partners including NatWest, Jefferies and Santander CIB. The public voted Updraft Best Personal Finance App at the British Bank Awards 2026, members score it 4.88 on Smart Money People from more than 11,000 reviews, with 4.5 on the App Store and 4.8 on Google Play (October 2026, ratings move). Recent Trustpilot reviews talk about easy applications, quick decisions and funds arriving fast. And when you need to ask something, a person answers: customer support is human.
Check your eligibility with a soft search and see your rate and monthly repayment, with no impact on your credit score. Then tell Updraft which balances you want to clear. If you go ahead, the money goes to your card providers and the cards are paid off, typically within days, and from then on it is one fixed monthly repayment, with your progress visible in the app all the way to the end date. Start on the web or download Updraft on iOS or Android.
Prefer to understand the numbers first? MoneyTalk, the Updraft content hub, covers the questions people actually ask, like whether a loan beats staying on card minimums and how a fixed-rate loan compares with a balance transfer. For a wider view of how UK households are using credit, browse the latest Updraft insights.
9%APR Representative based on a £10,000 loan over 60 months at 20.40% fixed interest p.a. Monthly repayment: £283.20. Total repayable: £16,992 (inc. £600 fee). Subject to status and affordability. Consolidating debt may increase the term and total amount repaid. All figures are representative and based upon an assessment of credit and affordability. Terms and conditions apply.
From 15.3% to 41.2% APR, £1,000–£25,000, over 2–5 years available.
Balances in the app connect through open banking via TrueLayer (FRN 901096), for whom Fairscore Ltd acts as an agent for account information services; access is read-only, and you can disconnect any account at any time. Loans are subject to status and affordability. If you are in financial difficulty rather than tidying up, free advice is available from StepChange, National Debtline, Citizens Advice or MoneyHelper.