Credit Cards 101: Statement Dates vs Due Date

If you're wondering what the difference is between the statement dates on your credit card and the due date, then they really are fairly simple to understand, but we have to break them down and that's exactly what we're gonna be going over. I'll start with the statement dates because those ones are a little bit more technical, but really we're only talking about two statement dates here. You've got the opening date and the closing date, and they're generally within about a 30-day window, so you're always just gonna have an open and a close, and those are called your statement dates. So if your statement opened on the first of the month and then it closed on the 30th, then technically everything that happens within that window of time, that 30-day period, is called your billing cycle, and that's really what you wanna remember here because everything that's within the opening and the closing date, that's just called your billing cycle and that's what we need to remember here. Because everything that happens on your credit card within the billing cycle, that's what's gonna be reported on your following statement. So if you make purchases on your credit card, if you have any returns, or if you're accumulating interest, fees, anything like that, that's all gonna show up on your next statement as soon as that statement closes, meaning the billing cycle that you're in, the 30-day period, closes officially, and then you're gonna be given that statement and you're gonna be given a due date as well. So as soon as that billing cycle ends, you're gonna be given your statement summary, and this is gonna include everything that I was talking about, your returns, your previous balance, credits, any interest if you're accumulating any, this is gonna have all of that official information for you and along with that, you are gonna have your due date and that's gonna be due generally about 25 days after that statement closed. It's always gonna be like that so that you have enough time to pay off that credit card for whatever amount was due for that particular month. Now the due date is very important to understand because you always have to at least make the minimum payment that's due by the due date. Otherwise, you can have a penalty interest rate that's a lot higher, or if you're more than 30 days late, the credit card company can actually issue that information to the credit bureaus and at that point, if you end up with a late payment on your credit report, that is really bad because it's gonna hurt your credit score and it can stay on there for up to seven years, which is obviously a very long time. So make sure that you really don't ever have any late payments because you don't wanna have that penalty APR and you really don't wanna do that, especially if you're more than 30 days late because that can affect your credit score for a very long time. And if you are making minimum payments, just be aware that they are very expensive because most of the time, you're paying about 99% in interest and 1% in principal. So really try to avoid making the minimum payment if you can but if that's your only option, definitely do that because that's a lot better than hurting your credit score with that late payment or getting a penalty APR interest rate. And I've said this over and over, but if you never wanna pay any interest on your credit card, all you have to do is just pay off the statement balance in full every single month by the due date and as long as you do that every single month, then you're never gonna be paying any interest and you never even have to worry about it. Now, if you're ever in the market for a new credit card, be sure and check out creditcards.com. I've got an affiliate link for them in the description below. So check them out if you have an interest because they have a very wide selection of credit cards that you can choose from and basically you can see which ones are gonna be better for your lifestyle. So check them out if you have an interest but thanks for watching this video. Have a great day.