Due date, statement date, reporting date

Due date statement date reporting date I was answering a question and thought this would be good information for an article: First keep in mind there are always exceptions. There are some cards that charge you interest from the date of purchase. Those are not the type of cards you want, but be aware they exist. Some may not have a grace period, so I don’t know that for sure, but all I’m aware of do. Also keep in mind cash advances and balance transfers typically accrue interest from the date they post and will interfere with your grace period and interest for purchases. Now, you have a due date and you must pay the minimum by then or suffer a late fee. Preferably, you want to pay at least the statement balance remaining from the previous month. If there is any of it remaining, it will accrue interest AND you will lose your grace period. As long as you pay at least the full statement balance from the previous month by the due date, you will not accrue interest and will keep your grace period (assuming you had it). If you ever fail to do this, then you have to go a statement or so with a zero balance to get your grace period back. Read your terms. Now, how much more do you pay than the statement balance? Well if you haven’t paid anything since it generated, you will have your statement balance plus anything else you have charged that has POSTED. So, you figure out how much you want to report. As long as you pay the statement balance, there is no interest on most cards for purchases. Now you know you have to pay the entire statement balance before the due date to avoid interest and maintain your grace period, so you’re going to pay the statement balance plus in addition, pay what you want to bring the balance down to what you want to report on the reporting date 3 to 5 days later, typically. If there is no additional balance, you can always make a small charge as long as it will report AND POST before the reporting date. Since it takes a couple days, you can even do it before the due date. Then pay off everything except for the small amount you want to report. As long as you pay the statement balance in full, you will not accrue interest as the remaining amount is in grace. Maybe an example will help more. Let’s say you make a charge of $100 on December 1 and your due date is December 22. You will have a minimum amount of zero dollars due Dec 22 (no prior statement balance), but when the statement closes on the statement/reporting date, say on December 27, you will have a statement balance of $100, if you have made no other charges. You have a choice, if you make a payment now you can adjust what will report and it will also cover the minimum payment for January 22. But do you do not have to, you can wait until January 22. If you don’t make a payment, the minimum payment of say $20 will be due on January 22. You may make other charges before then, say another hundred. But by January 22, you must pay $100 or you will be charged interest. If you do pay $100, the other hundred will report January 27. If you want only $20 to report then you would need to pay $180 and refrain from making charges until Dec 28. (it is possible charges made on the 26th and 27th would not post and therefore not show.) So a charge you made on December 1 you wouldn’t have to pay until say January 22. You could actually also pay $240, planning to spend another $60 in the interim leaving 20 to report, say if you mailed a check early. Digital payments they usually do not allow overage. And if you pay in full, you won’t even have a minimum payment due the following due date! So then you can actually wait until the statement/Reporting date and digitally pay the exact amount and allow the exact amount you want to remain, assuming the lender credits it the same day and most do. If you do this you never have an amount due for the minimum, so you never have to worry about anything other than the reporting date. Passing a due date does not make you late because $0 due, because you actually make your payment before the statement generates, for the following due date. Does that make sense? I hope it makes it clearer and doesn’t make it worse. The statement date and reporting date are typically the same for most lenders. Be aware US Bank reports the balance from the last business day of the month. However the statement date is the last day of the month. So the reporting date and statement date are different for USB. I hope this helps if you have any questions feel free. © 2022, MFBirdman7. All rights reserved by Birdman CreditRebels