How to Read Your Credit Card Statement
Hi, I'm Kim McGrigg, community manager for the non-profit Money Management International.
Each month you receive a statement from your credit card company whether through the mail or online but do you take the time to read it and if you did would you know what you're looking for. There is a lot of wriggly fine print in the statements so it can be very tempting to skim over the details.
However, some of that really tiny print can make a very big difference to your overall financial situation. I think that even if you have only a few minutes it is really worth the time to check and review a few specific sections of each and every credit card statement. So let’s take a look at the statement and figure out what exactly we’re looking for.
First, take a look at the account summary. If you turn from nothing else, look at this section to determine your total amount of, your due date, and your minimum payment amount. Though it may seem to let you know your minimum due and your due date, it may be impossible for your creditor to change these variables.
This section will also tell you your available balance. This is important to know so you don’t go over your limit and the amount of your last payment is here as well. Here you just want to be sure that you are properly credited for your previous payment. If you have another few minutes, hang around for your finance charge information. You will notice that the information on my statement isn’t even found until the second page.
However, this is very important information because it dictates the cost of using credit. Generally, people are most concerned with their annual percentage rate called here by the acronym APR. Again, do not assume you know what your APR is. As you’ll see here, many credit cards carry different interest rates depending on how you used the card.
For example, cash advances and purchases made outside the United States usually carry higher rates. Next, go back and review your transactions. This is important for a couple of reasons. First, it helps you get an idea of where you are spending your money and second it helps you keep an eye of or signs by default.
Now all this type of print that is found at the end you do not have to read all of this every single month. However, you should read at least once and if you have any questions about anything you’ve read in your statement you might find the answers here in this fine print.
For example, the fine print of my card tells me about how to report if it’s lost or stolen, my grace period. How do we report errors found on the statement and most people don’t realize this but many credit card offer purchase projections. For example, some of my purchases over $50.00 might qualify for protection if I'm just satisfied with the quality of my purchase.
Even with all of the information that can be found in the fine print, there is still some things you might not know for reading your statement. For example, on my statement there is no information about late fees and how and when they are applied. I found out the hard way that one of my credit cards charged us a late fee even if I'm only day late. The other thing that says in here is over the limit fees. How they are charged and when they are charged and these are a couple of things that are very important to your financial future.
So, if you don’t have your original agreement you might have to pick up the phone. The number is also here found on your statement. Experts recommended that you call customer service on weekday preferably in the early afternoon. They have the best chance outreaching the right person. And if you're going to write to your creditor pay special attention to fact that there are several addresses listed on your statement.
If you send your payment to the wrong address it may not get credited properly. So as you can see, it really does only take a few minutes to review your credit card statement. Further, those few minutes are really be valuable over the long run and if you're ever having trouble making your credit card payment I encouraged to seek help sooner rather than later. Call your creditor or contact a long profit credit counseling agency because the sooner you get help the more options there are available.
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