New research has shown that those in credit card debt who have a low minimum repayment often make absurdly low repayments below the actual requested figure.

The stats released by the University of Warick shows that the length of debt is often prolonged by the minimum repayment scheme, along with the added interest on top.

Dr Stewart a professor at the university said: "Although minimum payments are a good idea in principle, because they protect the small number of people who would otherwise make no repayment at all, minimum payments do seem to have an adverse effect on those who repay only part of the bill, even those repaying a large fraction of the bill.

He added, "From the psychology of anchoring, we know that people are less susceptible to its effects when they have greater knowledge. So helping people understand how much different possible repayments will cost them in the long term should help protect them from anchoring on minimum payments."

"For a particular individual the effect depends on their level of debt and on their repayments, and could be much larger or could be much smaller." He concluded.