Managing debt

keel's debt tools track your household's consumer debts, simulate repayment strategies, and show you a clear path to being debt-free. The numbers come from your real spending data, so the plan is always grounded in your actual financial situation.

Mortgages are excluded — they're secured long-term finance, not consumer debt. Including a mortgage alongside credit cards would distort the simulator and make your real progress invisible. Your mortgage still appears on the accounts screen for reference.

How it works

1. Add debts — keel automatically detects debts from your accounts (credit cards, loans, overdrafts) and from credit reports. You can also add debts manually. Your accounts are the source of truth: APR, balance, and monthly payment live on the account itself.
2. See your dashboard — total consumer debt, monthly payments, and your debt list at a glance.
3. Pick a strategy — choose how you want to tackle your debts.
4. Use the simulator — adjust your overpayment and see when you'll be debt-free. Each debt needs both an APR and a balance to be included in interest projections.
5. Track progress — balances update from detected payments between credit report uploads.

The four strategies

Smallest balance first (snowball). Clear your smallest debt first, then roll that payment into the next one. You see progress quickly, which keeps motivation high. It costs slightly more in interest than highest-rate-first, but people are more likely to stick with it.

Highest interest first (avalanche). Pay the least interest overall by tackling your highest-rate debt first. It takes longer to clear the first debt, but saves the most money in total.

Free up cash fastest. Clear the debt with the highest monthly payment first. Best when you need breathing room in your budget — once that payment disappears, you have more flexibility each month.

Variable plan. For households with unpredictable income (freelancers, self-employed, commission-based). Instead of committing to a fixed overpayment, keel shows three scenarios — a quiet month, a typical month, and a good month — and your debt-free date is shown as a range rather than a fixed date.

The simulator

The simulator shows two things side by side: your current trajectory (what happens if nothing changes) and your plan (what happens with your chosen strategy and overpayment).

It uses your statement minimum payment — or fixed instalment for loans — as the baseline: the amount you've committed to pay each month. If you haven't entered a minimum payment for a credit card, keel estimates one using the UK convention: the greater of 1% of the balance plus monthly interest, or £25. For loans and other instalment debt, the rough fallback is 1.5% of the balance. Setting the actual figure on each debt gives you more accurate projections.

As you adjust the overpayment slider, the debt-free date and interest saved update in real time. Your buffer impact is always visible — keel will warn you if your overpayment would drain your emergency fund.

When one debt clears, the snowball kicks in. The amount you were paying on the cleared debt — its minimum plus any overpayment flowing to it — automatically redirects to the next debt in your strategy order. Your total monthly commitment stays constant; only who receives it changes.

If the simulator shows "Won't clear at this pace" instead of a date, it's telling you the truth: at your current commitment level, interest is growing faster than you're paying down. Drag the slider up until a date appears, or pick a different strategy.

The trajectory chart

Below the results you'll see two lines: your current path (dashed) and your plan (solid). The vertical mark shows your projected debt-free month, and you can hover for the balance at any point. If your plan won't clear within 30 years, the chart says "Doesn't clear at this pace" — a sign your commitment needs to go up, or you need a different strategy.

Lump-sum scenarios

The "I have a lump sum" button lets you model a one-off payment — a tax refund, a bonus, or savings. Enter the amount, pick the debt to apply it to (defaults to your plan's priority debt), and the simulator re-runs with that payment included.

• It's a projection, not a commitment. keel doesn't move money or schedule anything.
• Overflow cascades. If the lump sum is bigger than the debt you applied it to, the remainder rolls onto the next debt in your strategy order.
• A persistent banner keeps the active scenario visible, with an × to clear it.

Balance transfer and consolidation

The "What if?" section models two further scenarios:

• Balance transfer — move a credit card to a 0% card. Enter the 0% period and transfer fee to see how much interest you'd save.
• Consolidation — merge multiple debts into one loan. Enter the new APR and term to see the combined payment and interest comparison.

These are illustrations, not recommendations — keel provides the information so you can make the decision.

Overdrafts

Overdrafts are real debt — banks often charge higher rates than credit cards. When one of your current or savings accounts is showing a negative balance, keel surfaces it on the debt screen alongside your cards and loans. It counts toward your interest-bearing total, appears in the simulator and trajectory chart, and you can tap through to that account's page — which flags the overdraft and gives you a place to record its rate.

keel knows you're overdrawn either from imported statements that capture the running balance, or from a credit report upload.

Pay-in-full credit cards

Not every credit card is "debt to repay." If you pay your statement in full each month, the card isn't costing you anything. When a card hasn't been charged interest in the last 90 days — and either there's no APR on file or the balance isn't growing — keel tags it pay-in-full:

• The big "Total debt to repay" number excludes pay-in-full balances. A secondary line shows them ("+ £2,140 pay-in-full credit") so nothing disappears from view.
• Your score doesn't penalise pay-in-full balances in the debt-to-income or trajectory measures.
• Pay-in-full cards don't appear in the payoff order — "pay off in 3 months" is meaningless for a card that turns over monthly.
• The "balance isn't coming down" and "no payment detected" coaching signals don't fire on them.

If you're on a 0% promotional rate, keel shows a "0% promo" badge instead, with the same exclusions for the duration of the promo.

Why it works this way

APR is always yours to enter. Credit reports don't include APR, so keel never guesses one silently. It may suggest a figure inferred from your observed interest charges, but nothing is applied until you confirm it.

The simulator uses your commitment, not your behaviour. Feeding it a "net of new spending" figure would double-count interest, which the simulator already calculates internally. Your statement minimum is the honest input.

Your bank's balance wins. When keel captures the running balance from a statement and it disagrees with a sum of transactions, the captured value wins — that's what you see in your banking app.

Everything is an illustration, not advice. All projections are framed as "based on your data, this scenario would result in…". keel gives you the information; the decisions are yours.

Good to know

• "Your balance isn't coming down." If a credit card's repayments over the last 3 months roughly match (or trail) new spending on the card, keel tells you directly rather than letting it hide in a graph. Refunds, cashback, balance transfers, fees, interest, and business spending don't count on either side — this is about your purchasing vs your paying-down. The wording softens when the numbers are close ("spending is keeping pace with your payments"). It only applies to credit cards — loans reduce by contract, not behaviour — and won't fire on new or barely-used cards. When it fires, other debt warnings for the same card are quietened so you see one clear message.
• "Your overdraft isn't clearing." If an account's lowest monthly balance has stayed at roughly the same depth for 3 months, keel flags it — or "getting deeper" if it's worsening. The check uses your lowest balance each month rather than money in vs money out, because a permanent overdraft where your salary lands and then drains can look "fine" on a flow basis even though it never clears. keel needs at least 3 months of captured balance data on the account before this can fire.
• The allocation nudge. If the minimum payments across your interest-bearing debts add up to more than your debt-repayment budget, keel suggests bringing them in sync. Dismissible; resurfaces after 60 days.
• Interest vs principal on your P&L. With APR entered, keel splits each repayment into interest (the cost of the debt) and principal (what actually reduces the balance). Add the start date and original balance too and keel replays the full history for an exact split; APR alone gives a best estimate labelled "Estimated."
• Balance inference is display-only. Between credit report uploads, keel adjusts displayed balances from detected payments, labelled "inferred from transactions." Inferred balances never affect your score — only confirmed ones do.
• Score unlock. The debt management score component (150 points: debt-to-income, balance trajectory, repayment consistency) unlocks as soon as you have any debt tracked — from a credit report, manual entry, or your transactions.

FAQ

How do I add APR to a debt? Tap the debt in your debt list — it opens that account's page, with the "Account settings" panel already open when the APR is missing. Enter the APR from your latest statement or your lender's website.

Can I track a debt that's not on my credit report? Yes — tap "Add debt manually" on the debt dashboard. Enter the lender name, balance, and monthly payment. APR and term are optional.

What happens when I pay off a debt? A celebration card appears showing how much you've freed up per month. You can redirect the freed payment to your next debt or to savings.

A debt repayment in my review queue says it pays down the wrong card — can I change it? Yes. keel works out which debt a repayment pays down from the payee name and shows it on the row ("Pays down Amex"). If it's right, confirm in one tap. If it's the wrong card — usually when you have two cards at the same bank — tap "change" and pick the right one. If keel can't tell which debt it is, the row just says "Confirm" rather than guessing.

Why is the avalanche strategy greyed out? Avalanche ranks debts by interest rate, so it needs APR. Add APR to at least one debt to unlock it.

Why aren't mortgages shown? Mortgages are secured, typically 25+ year finance. Alongside credit cards they'd distort the simulator and hide your consumer-debt progress. Your mortgage still shows on the accounts screen.

Why can't I see interest projections for some debts? The simulator needs both APR and a balance. Credit reports and bank statements don't include APR — enter it manually and projections appear automatically.

How often should I update my credit report? Every 3–6 months is ideal. Between uploads, keel infers balance changes from detected payments.

Why does keel say my balance looks off? If keel's running balance differs from your last credit report balance by more than 5% and £50, you'll see a prompt to recheck. Usually a payment or purchase hadn't cleared at report time, or the balance shifted between statement and report dates. Update the balance manually or upload a fresh report.

Where do I enter the start date, term, and original balance? Open any debt from the dashboard and scroll to the editable fields below APR and monthly payment. All three are optional — they just improve the accuracy of the interest/principal split.