An expense or financial requirement can happen at any time. It could be purchasing an electronic gadget or booking flight tickets to visit your folks living in your hometown urgently. These expenses and financial requirements may be significant. You cannot meet them in your monthly salary. This is when Credit Cards help.

A Credit Card allows you to apply for a pre-set credit limit instantly. You can use your Credit Card to make seamless transactions, offline or online. Banks consider your income, credit score, and credit history before offering a Credit Card and setting its utilisation limit.

About the Credit Card billing cycle

The Credit Card billing cycle is the time between two billing statements. This cycle period could vary between banks. It is generally between 27 to 31 days. When the billing cycle ends, your Credit Card statement is put together. You have time until the due date to pay your Credit Card dues. Here is an example to explain how the Credit Card billing cycle works:

Suppose your bank releases the Credit Card statement on the 7th of every month. This means your billing cycle will start on the 8th of the previous month and end on the 7th of the current month. Here, you need to consider 30 days. All your Credit Card transactions made between the 8th of the previous month to the 7 h of the current month are included in the Credit Card statement.

All Credit Card payments, cash withdrawals and ongoing Credit Card EMIs are mentioned in the statement. You receive your card statement via email. You can access it on the bank’s Internet Banking portal or Banking app.

About the Credit Card due date

The Credit Card due date is the final date until you can clear your card dues. Every bank’s due date varies. Typically, it is 15 to 25 days from the statement date. Considering the above example, your statement date is the 7th of every month. Suppose your bank counts 20 days from the statement date. This means your Credit Card due date will be the 27th of every month. You can learn about the bank’s due date when you apply for Credit Card online.

Make sure you mark the due date on your calendar and do not miss it. If you miss the due date, you need to pay a penalty and are considered a defaulter. If you cannot pay the total amount due, you can at least try to pay the minimum.