Using card after due date

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone! I'm new to the credit game and I have a question, hopefully I can explain it correctly. The due date for my Discover card was yesterday and I always pay in full every month. I wanted to make a purchase with the card today, the day after the due date, but I don't want it to pop up on this month as a balance I didn't pay. So my question is if I use it today, after the due date, will it appear on this past month's statement or next month's statement? Thanks for thelp.

[Anonymous]

The due date is just the date that you need to pay (all or part of) the previous statement balance by.   It's the statement close date that determines which statement a particular purchase appears on.

In most cases, the statement close is usually a week or so after the (previous) statement due date, so it's likely that something you purchase today will appear on the very next statement (but doesn't need to be paid for until a month or so from now)

[Aprile421]

As the above poster said. the due date is the day minimum payment is due. If you want to spend on the card and not have it post a balance you must spend and pay off balance before statement date. I know my discover statement date is the 26th of the month, I usually stop using the card around the 20th of the month let all balances post and pay off before statement closes.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello everyone! I'm new to the credit game and I have a question, hopefully I can explain it correctly. The due date for my Discover card was yesterday and I always pay in full every month. I wanted to make a purchase with the card today, the day after the due date, but I don't want it to pop up on this month as a balance I didn't pay. So my question is if I use it today, after the due date, will it appear on this past month's statement or next month's statement? Thanks for thelp.

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It's got nothing to do with the due date, it's got to do with the statement date. The only safe way to keep it off the statement is make the purchase the day after your statement date, or later of course.

[SOGGIE]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello everyone! I'm new to the credit game and I have a question, hopefully I can explain it correctly. The due date for my Discover card was yesterday and I always pay in full every month. I wanted to make a purchase with the card today, the day after the due date, but I don't want it to pop up on this month as a balance I didn't pay. So my question is if I use it today, after the due date, will it appear on this past month's statement or next month's statement? Thanks for thelp.

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It's got nothing to do with the due date, it's got to do with the statement date. The only safe way to keep it off the statement is make the purchase the day after your statement date, or later of course.

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^^^^^1....If I understand OP's concern correctly (not wanting new transaction to appear on upcoming statement, S Jamaica's post makes sense.

[Anonymous]

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@SOGGIE wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello everyone! I'm new to the credit game and I have a question, hopefully I can explain it correctly. The due date for my Discover card was yesterday and I always pay in full every month. I wanted to make a purchase with the card today, the day after the due date, but I don't want it to pop up on this month as a balance I didn't pay. So my question is if I use it today, after the due date, will it appear on this past month's statement or next month's statement? Thanks for thelp.

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It's got nothing to do with the due date, it's got to do with the statement date. The only safe way to keep it off the statement is make the purchase the day after your statement date, or later of course.

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^^^^^1....If I understand OP's concern correctly (not wanting new transaction to appear on upcoming statement, S Jamaica's post makes sense.

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True. It also depends how fast the purchase posts and how soon the statement date is after the due date. My chase due date and statement date are three days apart, Discover 5 days (generally). So if I made a purchase the day after the due date on the Chase card, it may or may not post to the statement just closing. It may not go out of pending quickly enough to make it. Chase lets you overpay, so I haven't watched it that carefully...if I charge after a due date and I want zero to report I just pull the appropriate payment from the Chase site to cover it. I often have a small overpayment reporting on my frequently used personal Chase cards. Discover, I have almost always had a balance at 0% and so I've never been as concerned with the ins and outs, but I'd bet that something purchased the day after the due date would definitely make the statement. I'm just not sure if they let you make a payment from the Discover site if they think you owe zero (Chase will, some won't). Also, if your Discover card is new-ish (sometimes they're weird about multiple payments within a short time). Depending on the day of the week, you may be able to push a payment from your bank, but it's highly likely it wouldn't make it either.

Remember the only reason it's critical to have the zero report is if you're going for a loan etc. and hyper-managing your scores. Otherwise you want at least one (or a small proportion) of your cards reporting a small balance. 

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello everyone! I'm new to the credit game and I have a question, hopefully I can explain it correctly. The due date for my Discover card was yesterday and I always pay in full every month. I wanted to make a purchase with the card today, the day after the due date, but I don't want it to pop up on this month as a balance I didn't pay. So my question is if I use it today, after the due date, will it appear on this past month's statement or next month's statement? Thanks for thelp.

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It would probably help you to understand how statement cycles work.  The life of statement cycle is this:

Statement Cycle Start

Statement Cycle End -- cards that report at statement end report the balance on this date

Grace Period, if applicable

Statement Due Date

The way cycles work there's a bit of overlap so you're really going to see something like this:

Statement Cycle 1 Start

Statement Cycle 1 End

Statement Cycle 2 Start

Statement Cycle 1 Grace Period

Statement Cycle 1 Due date

Statement Cycle 2 End

Statement Cycle 3 Start

Statement Cycle 2 Grace Period

..and so on and so on...

A charge has to post within a statement cycle to be included in the statement cycle otherwise it ends up in the following statement cycle.  As long as you're paying the Statement Balance in full by it's Due Date you're good.

Make sure you're aware of the difference between the Statment Balance and your Current Balance.  If, for example, your Statement Balance was $100 and you made a charge, say $10, after the Statement Balance posted then the new charge will have no impact on the Statement Balance since that cycle is already closed.  I.e. the Statement Balance would still only be $100 though the Current Balance would be $110.  As long as you pay the $100 by it's due date you're current -- you're not carrying a balance, you're not incurring revolving debt and you're not subject to interest.

The confusion may be coming in from those advocating paying before the balance reports but this generally isn't necessary aside from those looking to eke out adidtional points when applying for new credit, requesting CLI's etc.  Get the basics sorted out first before you worry about playing the scoring game.

[newhis]

For me Discover 'due date' is 1 day before the next 'cycle end'.

So if OP paid in full the last cycle statement, and didn't made any purchase until 1 day after the 'due date', it is almost certain that the new statement will be $0. I can't remember a single purchase made the statement close date that show on the statement (not talking about credit card fees like AF, those do report in closing statement).

With Discover if you purchase something the next day the statement closes (just to be sure), you have almost 2 months to pay for it without getting hit with interests. Other lenders are around 55 days and some only 50 or so.

[RonM21]

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@SOGGIE wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello everyone! I'm new to the credit game and I have a question, hopefully I can explain it correctly. The due date for my Discover card was yesterday and I always pay in full every month. I wanted to make a purchase with the card today, the day after the due date, but I don't want it to pop up on this month as a balance I didn't pay. So my question is if I use it today, after the due date, will it appear on this past month's statement or next month's statement? Thanks for thelp.

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It's got nothing to do with the due date, it's got to do with the statement date. The only safe way to keep it off the statement is make the purchase the day after your statement date, or later of course.

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^^^^^1....If I understand OP's concern correctly (not wanting new transaction to appear on upcoming statement, S Jamaica's post makes sense.

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Does make sense and I agree. This can be confusing for those new to credit. It was confusing to me for a very short time, until reading up on it all. The other posts also help give more detailed examples.