How to Read a Credit Card Statement: 8 things to check

How to Read a Credit Card Statement: 8 things to check

Do you have a credit card that you frequently use to manage monthly expenses in better ways? Congratulations!

Credit cards have become one of the most vital financial tools that one should own these days. Not only a credit card lets you raise money to pay during emergencies but even prevents you from borrowing from the family.  

Another advantage of owning a credit card is that you don’t need to pay the utilized limits instantly. You get up to 40-50 days to repay the bill after the generation of the credit card statement. Also, if you have made a big-ticket purchase, you can always break it into EMIs and pay easily over a tenor.

However, once your credit card statement gets generated, you need to check its particulars. A credit card statement is the summary of all the transactions that you including the outstanding amount, reward point gained and redeemed and more. As per the credit card statement, one can pay the credit card bill online.    

Nonetheless, a credit card statement may contain some mistakes or errors such as some purchases not made by you at all. If you don’t crosscheck all such issues, it may increase your debt, and you would need to pay it without having used.

Thus, what matters is checking the credit card statement every month to take control of your outstanding debt and keep things clear.

In the same context, we have created a post for all credit card users. They can go through it, and check a few elements in the credit card statement to be aware of all. Read on!

 

     1) Outstanding amount

 

Your credit card statement will contain two amounts – the minimum amount due and total amount due respectively. You can pay either of the two numbers as per your needs. However, it is always suggested to pay the total amount due because paying the other one will cough up interest until you pay it. Also, paying the minimum amount due will have a negative effect on your Credit Score.

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     2) Payment due date

 

You can pay credit card bill online either for the minimum amount or total amount within the payment due date. If you do that within the payment due date, there will be no charges or interest fee. Hence, be aware of the payment due date so that you may know what type of payments (minimum or total) you can make.

 

     3) Billing cycle

 

A billing cycle is 30 days. Transactions made during this period should be repaid within the payment due date. The payment due date usually appears after 15 days from the end of the billing cycle. You also know the slot as the grace period.   

 

     4) Opening balance

 

The credit card statement shows the remaining balance from your previous statement as the opening balance. It gets added to the transactions that you make in the current month.

 

     5) Credits and debits

 

Your credit card statement will also show the amount paid towards the bill as credits and total expenses made via the credit card as the debit.

 

     6) Available credit limit

 

You will also be able to see the available credit limit in the statement, which is the left amount up to which you can use for making payments. Using the credit limit more than 30-40% is not a good practice as it may hamper your CIBIL Score.

 

     7) Cash limit

 

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The cash limit is the total amount that you can use to withdraw from an ATM. Withdrawing cash via your credit card from an ATM is not a good practice. It is because that will attract massive interest charges till the time you make the payment.

 

     8) Rewards points

 

Every credit card company offers you some reward points for making a purchase. You may later redeem them to enjoy discounts on your future transactions.

A few credit cards such as the Bajaj Finserv RBL Bank SuperCard offer you the advantage of pocketing 20,000 rewards points on joining as the welcome bonus.  

Now, you are aware of all the vital points in a credit card statement so that you may avoid the mistakes not incurred on your part. It is better to pay credit card bill online after confirming all particulars of the card statement to prevent all loss.

Bajaj Finserv offers pre-approved deals on credit cards, EMI finance, personal loans, business loans, and more. It is to simplify the loan procedure and to make it less time-consuming in the end.

You may share a few of your basic details like your name and mobile number to check out your pre-approved loan offers today.

Author Bio:

How to Read a Credit Card Statement: 8 things to checkGaurav Khanna is an experienced financial advisor, digital marketer, and writer who is well known for his ability to predict market trends. You can find Gaurav on Linkedin.

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