When is the best time to set your statement date, in your opinion?

CurryCee

Hey all,

My direct debit is set up to clear the balance on my credit card in full each month, and my DD usually comes out 14 days following the statement date. As I get paid on the 5th of the month I'm wondering whether to have my statement date before/after my pay date.

Is there a certain strategy everyone adopts with regards to when their credit card statement comes out? Before payday? On payday? After payday?

I'd be keen to hear others' thoughts on the matter.

[Deleted User]

I leave it to whatever it gets set at, and ensure that I don't spend more than I can clear in full.

If you're poor at budgeting, then just after payday may help a little, but it won't solve the long term problem.

[Deleted User]

You can ask to have your statement date moved to say the 22nd of every month, meaning the DD will get taken 14 days later (around the 6th/7th).

I do this with my accounts so they all come out on the 1st of every month

Fingerbobs

I asked Halifax to change my credit card statement date to 1st of the month, and they set it to 7th. I had previously assumed you could pick any date you liked, but it seems not.

EarthBoy

Some banks might not let you change the statement date. They're under no obligation to do so.

Nebulous2

I don't like messing about with dates for financial products and just take the date I get.

I have a preference for my direct debits coming out quite early in the month so generally choose the third or so for utilities where I get a choice on joining.

For credit cards I often pay in full manually on the first week of the month. I have a minimum payment dd in place in case I forget.

We're all different and will have varying techniques to help us manage our money.

jimbo26

It's purely down to personal choice, there's no right or wrong way. I prefer payments going out at the start of each month, so I have changed statement dates in the past. Most CC companies allow this in my experience, but it is down to them

chattychappy

I prefer all my CCs to have "pay by" dates at around the same time. That way, typically once a month I go through the whole lot in one go, checking statements and making manual payments. I don't use DDs.

I never had to ask CCs to change statement dates, by a wild coincidence they are all within a few days of each other. The upshot is that I go through them at the beginning of the month, which is easy to remember.

My income is ad-hoc, so no pay day as such.

The exception to the rule is ATM withdrawals on Clarity/Zero. I pay these within a week of making the transaction.

2nd_mortgage

I get paid on the 28th each month & I have ensured that my "pay by" date is 3rd-5th of the month so the payment goes out of my bank account on the 28th itself & reaches the credit card in 3-4 working days. This way I know how much money I am left with for rest of the month.

glider3560

I get paid on the last working day of the month, and try to get all my direct debits set to the 1st of the month.


I'm one of those people that keep their current account balance to a minimum by transferring money to/from savings accounts when needed. Having the direct debits immediately after payday reduces one of the transfers that I have to make manually.

Krash420

My payday is 25th of every month, and ive got it set up so I get the Statement before this day, and it gets paid out the following month.

This works brilliantly for two of them which have statement dates of around 12th and get paid on 7th/9th of the following month, but AmEx likes to only have a 2 week limit and so statement for that is 19th with DD on 2nd/3rd following month.

I do this mainly so I know exactly what my CC outgoings are so I can set aside the money from my next pay check, and put standing orders to move rest to my Savings account.

I generally log in once my payslip is available online (a few days before payday) and set out standing order from saving to relevant accounts to cover the DD that are going to go. Also i dont keep the money in the account into which its paid, so i set up more standing orders to move it to the relevant accounts.

All in all, im extremely OCD as to where my money is and how much of it is in a non interest paying account.