spend date and when it hits the bill

Ant555

Ive got a credit card that has a payment due date of 8th each month - Is there any delay in when a spend hits the bill and therefore requires payment..
So, if I purchase something this weekend (5th 6th) then is there a chance it will require paying immediately or am I best waiting until 8th onwards to be sure.  Its not a cash flow problem as we pay in full each month, just a visibility thing as its a Christmas gift and it will be really obvious and give the game away if I have to move money before Dec 25th to pay.
Thanks

Ebe_Scrooge

If your "Payment Due" date is the 8th, the statement will have been produced (roughly) a couple of weeks before that date.  Anything you spend on the card after the statement is produced will be due for payment on the next statement.

If the payment due date is 8th December, you've presumable already received December's statement.  Anything you've put on the card in the last couple of weeks or so shouldn't show on this month's statement, you'll see it on January's statement.

JGB1955

Surely the payment date is roughly 3 weeks after the bill date - so if your payment is due on the 8th it will be for all items billed up until (roughly) 17 November.  Any expenditure made now won't become payable until 8 January.

blue.peter

JGB1955 said:

Surely the payment date is roughly 3 weeks after the bill date

Yes, more or less, with a bit of variation between card issuers. I have six credit cards. Statements for all of them are generated on the 19th or 20th of the month, with payment due dates between the 9th and the 17th of the following month (the exact date being dependent on things like the length of the month) - so that's between 20 and 26 days. If the due date falls on the weekend and payment is made by DD, it gets collected on the next working day, giving an extra day or so for payment.

OP: I'm wondering if you meant "statement production date" when you said "payment due date"? You certainly should expect that spending over this coming weekend will be included on a Tuesday bill. In my experience, spending on day 1 will immediately be treated as pending by a card provider, and will clear on day 2 or 3. (Whether it's day 2 or day 3 seems to depend on the firm with which you spend. Tesco transactions, for example, seem to be very quick to clear.) So spending on Sunday will normally be cleared by Tuesday and be included on a statement generated on that day. These timings don't appear to be affected by non-working days.

Sandtree

Ant555 said:

So, if I purchase something this weekend (5th 6th) then is there a chance it will require paying immediately or am I best waiting until 8th onwards to be sure.

There are a lot of variables...

Date of purchase - 5th
Date of charge - 5th-7th but for various reasons could be later
Statement date - if your payment date is the 8th this is probably around 18th of the preceding month but varies by card issuer
Payment due date - 8th this will be driven by the statement date and varies both by provider and mechanism of payment, some take DDs much earlier than the due date and others at the last minute

So typically speaking if you buy something on the 5th of this month it’ll be payable on the 8th of next month hence why most credit cards used to say that you get up to 56 days interest free or words to that effect.

What you need to check is your statement date not payment date, the statement will include everything that has been charged (rather than purchased) since the last statement and you’ll then have 2-4 weeks to pay.

Ant555

Thanks for the replies - that all makes sense now.
The May statement (last time I used it) was dated 13/5/20 and payment due date was 8/6/20.
Based on all the replies, I think I can use it this weekend and it will likely appear on the statement dated 13/12/20 - payment will be due by 8/1/21.  I'll pay after Christmas Day when the surprise present is out in the open.
Cheers.

[Deleted User]

Cards companies do always talk about up to 56 days free - if you spent the day the statement is generated (maybe even a bit before that depending on how they work) - say on the 15th, it would appear on the next statement, on the 15th and presumably be due say on the 30th, meaning you do get 45 days or so free

born_again

Surly the issue is not letting the other party see the bill.
Always amusing to have one party ring up claiming fraud on a transaction they know nothing about. Only to hear the other party have to confess it's a surprise present.

Moral of the story. Never use a joint account for any surprises or a CC that the other party checks the statement on..

blue.peter

Deleted_User said:

Cards companies do always talk about up to 56 days free - if you spent the day the statement is generated (maybe even a bit before that depending on how they work) - say on the 15th, it would appear on the next statement, on the 15th and presumably be due say on the 30th, meaning you do get 45 days or so free

For most card issuers, I'd expect the gap between statement production and payment due date would be a bit longer than the 15 days that you've assumed here. In my experience, it's nearer to 25 days for most.

The shortest of mine is Virgin Money, at 20 days (statement date 20 November, due date 10 December).

It's 25 days for MBNA, TSB, Nationwide, Amazon (NewDay) and American Express. So if we assume that spending on the day before a statement is generated for one of those doesn't make it onto that statement (plausible), we get to 56 days. Or 57, if it's a long month.