RSS FeedKey Terms to understand when reading your Credit Card Statement
Continuing with our discussion on credit card statement, we would now discuss the key terms used in the statement and their meanings. The explanation given below would help you understand the key terms better and thus help you better understand your credit card statements;
- Total Balance: The total balance tells you about the balance you owe in total. This constitutes everything from unpaid balance of previous month, to new purchases, cash advances or any other charges such as annual fee, late fees or finance charges of current month.
- Total Credit Line: This tells you how much you owe in total or maximum balance your card can carry.
- Statement/Closing Date: The last date when your billing cycle ends. The statement is generated after calculating the interest for the whole period.
- Available Credit Line: The amount of credit available in the card which is not used by you. This is the amount equal to the amount used subtracted from Total Credit Line.
- Post Date: This is the date when a purchase is made or cash advance, service charge or payment is received on your credit card.
- Amount Over Credit Limit: This term is used when any combination of purchase, cash advance, fee or finance charge exceeds over your credit line. An extra fee will be charged for amount that has crossed the limit.
- Cash Advance Limit: This tells you about the maximum amount of money you can withdraw from your credit card account.
- Purchase/Advance Minimum Due: The smallest amount you can pay on your purchases and cash advances by the Payment Due Date and still meeting the terms of your card agreement.
- New Balance: The amount includes any unpaid balance from last month, new purchases, cash advances and any other charges such as annual fee, late fees or finance charges, you owe the issuer.
- Minimum Amount Due: This shows the minimum amount you can pay by the Payment Due Date, by meeting the terms of your card aggreement. This is shown at two places in the statement.
- Periodic Rate: The interest rate described in relation to a specific time period. Likewise, the monthly periodic rate is equal to the amount charged per month and the daily periodic rate is the amount charged on daily basis.
- Annual Percentage Rate (APR): The term tells you about the total cost charged on your credit borrowed for over a year, after calculation. APR can be a nicer way to compare the interests charged by diferent credit cards. The lower the APR calculated, the lesser the interest you will need to pay.
- Payment Due Date: This tells you the last date by which your payment must be sent to the issuer. If the payment is not made by this date, an extra fee is charged which is called late fee.
- Grace Period: A definite amount of time you have until no late fee is charged.