What is credit card balance: There is a “credit balance” shown on my statement What is a credit balance?
Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.
- If you don’t pay the full amount of your balance by the statement due date, the amount you still owe carries over to the next billing cycle.
- To protect — and even improve — your credit score, aim to pay off your credit card balance in full and on time every month.
- Once you familiarize yourself with your credit card statement, establish goals for yourself.
- Using an updated version will help protect your accounts and provide a better experience.
- You can expect your credit card balance to fluctuate, increasing with charges and decreasing with payments.
- The content on this page provides general consumer information.
While we adhere to strict editorial integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners. The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired. Talk to your credit card company to see if you qualify for an automatic increase of your credit limit. This can effectively drop your credit utilization ratio down.
You’re now leaving Chase
Late payments can add up if you’re having trouble paying your bills each month. Payment history accounts for 35% to 40% of your credit score depending on which score your lender uses. Your credit utilization ratio measures how much credit you’re using compared to the amount you have available. According to the CFPB, experts recommend keeping your credit utilization below 30% of your total available credit. There will likely be a few balances listed on your credit card statement. This may be confusing at first, but knowing the difference can make card management simpler.
Monitoring your balance can help you spend within your budget and avoid accidentally winding up in debt. You’ll want to pay your full credit card balance after you receive your statement but before the due date. You want to show that you’re using your credit responsibly without carrying a balance month-to-month. The FICO® Score☉ and VantageScore® models recommend keeping your total credit utilization ratio under 30%, but the lower, the better. That means if you have a credit card with a $10,000 limit, you should keep the balance below $3,000.
How a High Credit Card Balance Affects Your Credit Score
Keeping track of your balance is essential for managing your credit card usage and paying off your debt. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.
- This information may include links or references to third-party resources or content.
- This may be confusing at first, but knowing the difference can make card management simpler.
- Keeping a high credit card balance can make you financially vulnerable in other ways, too.
- To avoid interest charges, you’ll need to pay your bill in full each month.
- The less of your available revolving credit you use, the better it is for your credit score.
If you do that, know that it will take a long time to pay off the balance. Although you’ll pay more in interest, you won’t damage your credit score. If you return an item purchased on your credit card, the merchant will issue a refund to your account. If you had any points or cashback, that amount will be deducted. While it’s always better to pay off a credit card balance in full than to carry a balance, it may not always be possible to do so.
How Does a Refund on a Credit Card Work?
This also includes any interest and fees the credit card company charges you. The statement balance is the amount listed on your monthly credit card bill and affects your credit card grace period. Your statement balance could be less than your current balance, depending on the timing of your purchases compared to the billing cycle dates. However, you may get charged a balance transfer fee, typically a small percentage of the total amount transferred. At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions.
But credit cards also come with many responsibilities and can sometimes lead to problems. No, perhaps one of the biggest credit card myths is that it’s good to carry a balance on a credit card. Carrying a balance on your credit card doesn’t help your credit score, it only has the potential to hurt it. The content on this page provides general consumer information. This information may include links or references to third-party resources or content.
What to do if your credit card balance is too high
And the less interest you’re charged, the lower your future card payments could be, too. You can make a minimum payment or pay something between the minimum and full statement balance. When you do this, the remainder of your statement balance gets carried or “rolled over” to the next statement. Since a high balance may lower your credit score, this could hurt your ability to secure future credit or lower interest rates on future credit cards and loans.
On-time payments keep your account in good standing and avoid negatively impacting your payment history. Understanding the difference between each type of balance on a credit card might be a bit confusing at first. But knowing which balance you’re responsible for paying each billing cycle can help you properly manage your card.
More Discover Products
By making your payments in full and on time each month, you’ll help to build a strong credit score. Are you wondering what your credit report has to say about your credit card balances? A credit card balance is the total amount of money you owe the credit card company at any given time. The simplest way is to log into your account online or via your card issuer’s mobile app. Your current balance and statement balance will also be shown on your bill along with the required minimum payment.
By understanding your credit card balance, you can better manage your debt. Now that you know what a credit card balance is, how it gets calculated, and how to pay it down, you can handle your credit card account more confidently. Your credit limit is the total amount you can spend according to your credit card company.