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to make it easy (if you pay in full)...
when you use your card during the month of Jan.. on Jan 31st your statement (the bill for all charges in Jan) will cut, and is due in 3 weeks (Feb 21st is due date for Jan charges).
when you use your card during the month of Feb.. on Feb 29th your statement (the bill for all charges in Feb) will cut, and is due in 3 weeks (March 21st is due date for Feb charges).
etc. (use the card 4 weeks and it's due 3 weeks after)
note: your statement date probably won't be the last day of the month as in the example, and depends on which day of the month you were approved for the card.
note: If you don't pay in full, some balance will be carried over and added on to the next months bill (along with that current months charges and some interest)
Merry Xmas
it is easy if you just pay the bill in full when you get it and then you can learn the dates after 2 or 3 months. then you can start paying the bill early to cut a $0 statement (if you wish)
and yes... As long as you pay the entire amount on the statement (bill) by it's due date, you will never pay interest. I suggest you do this forever.
@Anonymous wrote:
If my card's statement bill period is Nov 9 - Dec 8, I will be charged interest in for those purchases shown?
Statement end date of Dec 8 signifies a new billing cycle, is that all?
Due date of Jan 5, 2016 for the billing period is to avoid interest for previous charges?
Report date of Jan 9, 2016 what amount is being reported?
Yes....I'm confused. I've been trying to figure out all the differences are with the cut date, statement date, ect.....currently it's mind blowing.
elim has the explanation correct, however you seem to be jumbling a lot of different time periods in here, OP.
Let's try to reconstruct a sequence. New credit card, No previous balance. Zero on November 9.
Nov 9 - December 8, you run up $100 of charges on your CC.
Statement cuts with a December 8 (or nearly that) Statement Date. This shows a balance of $100 due.
The Payment Due date is January 5. Minimum Payment is $25 (for example). Repeating, full statement balance is $100.
You add charges on December 20 for $200.
You make a payment in full on January 5 of $100. You have now paid the entire Statement Balance from December 8, $100, and will not owe any interest on that $100.
Your new statement prints with an effective date of January 9:
Previous Balance $100
Payments ($100)
Interest $ 0
New Charges $200
New Balance $200
If you pay only the minimum payment from the January 9 statement, then you start getting charged interest, starting from the January 9 statement date.
February 9 after only minimum payment:
Previous Balance $200
Payments ($ 25)
Interest $ 3 at 20% APR
New Charges $100 (these likely get added in to the interest charge above, but keeping it simple)
New Balance $278
@Anonymous wrote:
If my card's statement bill period is Nov 9 - Dec 8, I will be charged interest in for those purchases shown?
Statement end date of Dec 8 signifies a new billing cycle, is that all?
Due date of Jan 5, 2016 for the billing period is to avoid interest for previous charges?
Report date of Jan 9, 2016 what amount is being reported?
Yes....I'm confused. I've been trying to figure out all the differences are with the cut date, statement date, ect.....currently it's mind blowing.
Due date: date by which minimum payment is due and date by which you must pay off statement to avoid paying interest on purchases. Depending on bank this could be from 1 to 7 days prior to the statement date. In your case you must pay off December 8th statement by January 5th to avoid interest.
Statement date: date after the due date on which statement cuts and billing cycle closes, (Cut date would be synonym for statement date). Will reflect all payments received through statement date.
Report date: usually the same as the statement date. I.e. the report to credit bureaus, whenever it is issued, almost invariably reports the statement balance