Question about returns/credits on Citi or Cap1 cards

[marmaladepie]

Does Citi or Cap1 or BofA deduct from the statement balance owed when you have returns or credits from merchants?

For example, if the statement balance is $500, but later a merchant credit backs $100, will the new statement balance be $400 or still be $500 (if your total balanace was actually higher)?

Amex will apply that toward the statement balance so the new statement balance is $400. 

Chase does not I don't think.

TIA

[sarge12]

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@marmaladepie wrote:

Does Citi or Cap1 or BofA deduct from the statement balance owed when you have returns or credits from merchants?

For example, if the statement balance is $500, but later a merchant credit backs $100, will the new statement balance be $400 or still be $500 (if your total balanace was actually higher)?

Amex will apply that toward the statement balance so the new statement balance is $400. 

Chase does not I don't think.

TIA

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To the best of my knowledge they all credit the account with the return amount, deduct any reward funds that were earned, so it lowers the balance, but does not count toward the minimum payment amount. It sometimes results in a negative balance until new charges bring it back positive. It is also why most issuers will not credit the account with the SUB for at least 30 days, in case the cardholder gets a refund.

[sarge12]

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@marmaladepie wrote:

Does Citi or Cap1 or BofA deduct from the statement balance owed when you have returns or credits from merchants?

For example, if the statement balance is $500, but later a merchant credit backs $100, will the new statement balance be $400 or still be $500 (if your total balanace was actually higher)?

Amex will apply that toward the statement balance so the new statement balance is $400. 

Chase does not I don't think.

TIA

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I may have misunderstood, but to clarify, to the best of my knowledge, once the statement prints, the refunds come off of the total balance, but the statement balance remains the same and so does the minimum payment. The exception to this is if the statement balance and total balance are the same. The minimum payment set by the statement balance does not go down because of the refund, but ofcourse if you PIF the total balance will. The vast majority of the time it has put me in the negative balance territory, as my usual statement balance and total balance is 0. I pay all my cards off weekly usually unless there is a pending charge and I am waiting till it posts. Most cards will not allow the refund to lower a statement balance or deduct the refunded amount from the minimum due. Doing so could result in planning to buy and return items to actually not make a payment that month. If any actually adjust the statement balance or minimum amount due based on a refunded charge, to what it would have been without the charge included, I am unaware of it. That might be a book keeping nightmare.

[sarge12]

By the way, I have 2 Amex cards and was not aware they did that. I do not consciously try to pay before a statement cuts to prevent a balance being reported. I don't even keep up with statement dates or even due dates. I just go to every site weekly and pay the total balance unless there are pending charges showing. If pending charges show I may wait till they post a few days later. If the statement cuts while waiting on the pending charges to post, it might result in the balance reporting. This is mainly an issue with Chase Amazon Prime, as they usually wait till the items purchased ship to post the pending charges. That can at times result in a charge showing as pending for a week. If a minimum payment amount shows, I pay the total balance showing even if items are still pending. None of the pending charges will be due for more than a month then anyway.