When do I pay my credit card bsck

Bethancurran98

Hi guys it’s my first time owning a credit card and I’m a little confused. I want to know when I pay my card off and the date this will happen. Say I spend some money in the middle of December on my credit card would I pay the amount I owe back at the end of the month or a month after I made my first transaction? Because for me at this moment in time paying at the end of January would be so much better. Need helpc would be appreciated

redux

It depends on when your statement date is. The due date for payment is written on it, and is a few days before the following statement.

So purchases a day or two before the statement date will appear on it and allow you about 3 weeks to pay, whereas a purchase the day after a statement will appear on the following month's give you between 7 and 8 weeks to pay.

If you've just applied for the card, the first statement date will probably, though not certainly, be a month after opening the account. If it would be a bit more convenient to have the statement at a different time of the month, for instance so that the due date for payment is shortly after monthly salary received, the firm may be willing to adjust the date.

StopIt

Bethancurran98 wrote: »

Hi guys it’s my first time owning a credit card and I’m a little confused. I want to know when I pay my card off and the date this will happen. Say I spend some money in the middle of December on my credit card would I pay the amount I owe back at the end of the month or a month after I made my first transaction? Because for me at this moment in time paying at the end of January would be so much better. Need helpc would be appreciated

When you receive a statement, it'll have the payment due by date.


Depending on the method of payment, you may need to pay a few days earlier because some payment methods take longer to clear. A Faster Payments transfer is generally the quickest.


How long you get to pay each transaction depends on how near the statement date you are. You can have up to 56 days to pay either in full without incurring interest or the min payment or anything in between. If you use your card 1 day after the statement date, you'll only be billed for it on the next statement date, giving you 29 days + the time between statement and bill due to pay.


Edit: Going to move this to the Credit Card section.

agrinnall

If you intend to pay off the full balance every month then the best option (in my view, although others have a different opinion for reasons that have never been clear to me) is to set up a full balance direct debit, which will take the money from your account at the latest possible date - it also means you'll never forget to pay it, although you do need to make sure that there is enough money in the account that you specify at the time the DD will be taken. One thing to note is that it may not be possible to do this now for the first statement.

eskbanker

agrinnall wrote: »

If you intend to pay off the full balance every month then the best option (in my view, although others have a different opinion for reasons that have never been clear to me) is to set up a full balance direct debit, which will take the money from your account at the latest possible date

You may have answered your own question there - a number of cards schedule DDs for up to ten days before the due date, so some cardholders elect not to use that payment method for cashflow reasons....

GothicStirling

You could always pay the minimum in December, then clear in full in January. Though, having had bad debt myself, I wouldn't recommend using credit to fund Christmas.

sourcrates

Bethancurran98 wrote: »

Hi guys it’s my first time owning a credit card and I’m a little confused. I want to know when I pay my card off and the date this will happen. Say I spend some money in the middle of December on my credit card would I pay the amount I owe back at the end of the month or a month after I made my first transaction? Because for me at this moment in time paying at the end of January would be so much better. Need helpc would be appreciated

Sounds to me like this card may not be affordable for you.

Christmas is an expensive time of year, but if you can’t afford it, my advice would be don’t borrow it.

Credit cards can be the edge of a very slippery slope indeed.

Kim_13

If you're struggling with the cost of Christmas, this article may help: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/christmas-savings

As advised above, your payment due date is dependent upon your statement date. In my case I get a statement on the 22nd for a card taken out on the 30th of the month, so you can't predict anything from the date of application either.

Cards tend to be up to 56 days interest free - but to get this you'd have to make the purchase at the start of the statement period. The payment due date is around three weeks after the statement is produced.

If you don't clear a statement in full by the due date, interest is applied from the date of purchase, not the payment due date. It accrues on the full statement balance, not just the portion not cleared.