topic Re: Statement balance vs full balance in Credit Cards

Statement balance vs full balance

Anonymous — Wed, 06 May 2020 16:01:18 GMT

I am not 100% sure so that is why I wanted to ask if paying statement balance is enough to avoid interest or full balance payment is required?

Re: Statement balance vs full balance

KJinNC — Wed, 06 May 2020 16:05:43 GMT

At risk of putting my foot in my mouth:

I think the statement balance is the entire balance at the time they cut the statement. And yes, I think paying the statement balance in full would avoid interest. Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong about that

Re: Statement balance vs full balance

Anonymous — Wed, 06 May 2020 16:26:09 GMT

Yes, you have to pay the statement balance by due date to avoid interest. Any new charges that are made after the statement was cut are not required by the current statement due date. Those new charges will be the next statement due at the following month due date.

Re: Statement balance vs full balance

Gmood1 — Wed, 06 May 2020 16:43:47 GMT

FIs such as Amex refer to the amount that needs to be paid in order to avoid interest as the "new balance".

Re: Statement balance vs full balance

Anonymous — Wed, 06 May 2020 16:53:47 GMT

Basically the statement is the "bill", so PIF by due date will avoid interest (assuming you aren't carrying a balance from a previous cycle). This is the normal situation for most things, it's just websites and apps that make it easy to see every transaction which can cause confusion.

Compare to say electricity bills. AFAIK, most of us don't worry when we receive the bill "What about the electricity I have used between the statement and now/the due date". If this even occurs to you as a thing, you will decide it will appear on next months bill. In theory, you could check and calculate, but since it's harder and less transparent than a credit card, it doesn't come up!

Re: Statement balance vs full balance

pinkandgrey — Wed, 06 May 2020 17:03:57 GMT

Always paying the statement balance will ensure that you don't pay interest. The full balance would pay off any amount on the card, including the statement balance and any other charges that have posted since the statement cut.

Re: Statement balance vs full balance

Anonymous — Wed, 06 May 2020 17:05:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I am not 100% sure so that is why I wanted to ask if paying statement balance is enough to avoid interest or full balance payment is required?

Make sure you ALWAYS pay the statement balance ( more is also ok ) if you want to avoid paying interest. If you pay less than statement balance then you will get hit with interest.

Re: Statement balance vs full balance

Anonymous — Wed, 06 May 2020 17:25:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Compare to say electricity bills. AFAIK, most of us don't worry when we receive the bill "What about the electricity I have used between the statement and now/the due date". If this even occurs to you as a thing, you will decide it will appear on next months bill. In theory, you could check and calculate, but since it's harder and less transparent than a credit card, it doesn't come up!

Speaking of, my Grandfather was someone who liked to keep tabs on the electric meter. Apparently they too can make mistakes when reading the numbers, because he caught a few discrepancies they had made over the years. Whether by accident or on purpose we'll never really know.

Re: Statement balance vs full balance

NRB525 — Wed, 06 May 2020 17:42:10 GMT

@pinkandgrey wrote:
Always paying the statement balance will ensure that you don't pay interest. The full balance would pay off any amount on the card, including the statement balance and any other charges that have posted since the statement cut.

And this is something that I suspect "Zero Reporting" folks may want to use.

If you set up CC Autopay to pay "Full Balance" where available, that should clear the account to zero, including recent charges, prior to the next Statement Date. This will get the next Statement balance to zero, if you also stop using the card for a few days, or nearly to zero if some charges are processing through. But that also requires a trust that the CC Autopay will work, and I suspect that trust is lacking in many

Re: Statement balance vs full balance

Anonymous — Wed, 06 May 2020 21:22:12 GMT

I was paying balances in full before Covid19. Now I am trying to have some cash cushion plus all the spending goes on 0% cards.
Anyone else had their spending pattern changed?

Re: Statement balance vs full balance

jhb — Thu, 07 May 2020 07:48:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was paying balances in full before Covid19. Now I am trying to have some cash cushion plus all the spending goes on 0% cards.
Anyone else had their spending pattern changed?

No change for us. Still paying in full, but still saving cash. Even with 0%, it's just one less thing to worry about in the future. I really need things to be as simple as possible in my life.