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Sri Lanka: a capped rate and a 5% minimum

Sri Lanka is one of the few markets here where the regulator caps credit-card interest outright. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka sets a maximum rate on card balances, and the ceiling has sat around 28% in recent years. It is not a permanent number: the Central Bank reviews it and has moved it with policy rates, so check the current direction before trusting an older figure, and treat the 28% the calculator opens on as the recent norm rather than a fixed law.

Issuers typically require 5% of the balance a month, with the month's interest taken from within that payment and a flat floor of about Rs 1,000 on small balances. Against a capped rate the 5% works: at 28% a year the interest is a little over 2.3% a month, so most of the first payment still reaches the principal, which is why Sri Lankan minimum payments clear a card in years rather than the decades an American 1% minimum takes.

The cap applies to interest, not to the other charges on the account. Annual fees, late fees and cash-advance charges sit outside it and outside this calculator.

For how the calculation works, the formula behind it and what it leaves out, see the full guide.

Data sources

This calculator in other countries

Each country has its own rates, thresholds and rules, and its own page with the official sources they came from.

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