What does INITIAL BALANCE mean in Santander 123 Credit Card statement?

LiveOnce

Hi all,

What does INITIAL BALANCE mean in Santander 123 Credit Card statement?

Might be a silly question but I see that in each of my monthly statement report but don't quite understand it.

Edit: Few more questions below

[Deleted User]

Opening balance.

LiveOnce

What does opening balance mean?

[Deleted User]

The balance carried over from your last statement.

bazzyb

What does balance mean?

jonesMUFCforever

Who is Santander?

LiveOnce

I am really not that good at understanding credit cards and missing the basic knowledge sorry.

From what I understand I have a certain spending limit per month. E.g. I get £2,500 allowed from the bank.

The fact that opening balance seems to change every month confused me.

I pay it all back by direct debit so just trying to understand how "Opening balance" works.

If anyone has an illustrative example that will help my brain just understand it

YorkshireBoy

LiveOnce wrote: »

If anyone has an illustrative example that will help my brain just understand it

You already have one...your last 2-3 statements. The closing balance on your last statement becomes your opening balance on the current statement.

Ben8282

No. You do not have a certain spending limit per month. You have a credit limit which must not be exceeded at any time. If your credit limit is £2,500, you will not be able to spend £2,500 per-month as by the time your direct debit is taken almost an entire second months spending will have built up on the account (assuming a constant average spend throughout the month)..

You asked for an example.
Month 1. Your account is new and you have spent nothing. The statement arrives. The initial balance is therefore 0. The statement balance (to pay) is 0.
Month 2. You spend £500. The statement arrives. The initial balance is 0. The statement balance (to pay) is £500.
Month 3. You pay £500. You spend £1900. The statement arrives. The initial balance is £500. The statement balance (to pay) is £1900.

LiveOnce

Superb, thank you Ben!

LiveOnce

Sorry to come back to this.

I am trying to understand a bit more.

1. Let's say on monthly basis I have a Direct Debit value coming into my Credit Card account (Money In)
   
2. And then I have Initial Balance (Money Out).

How do the two work together?

If my total Direct Debit (Money In) to the Credit Card was £10,000 a year and my Initial Balance (Money Out) was £23,000 a year, does that mean my spend in the Credit Card is £13,000 a year?