How to Read Your Credit Card Statement

Your credit card statement reveals what you need to know to help stay on top of your finances, such as your overall balance, minimum payment due, and due date.

This article contains general information and is not intended to provide information that is specific to American Express products and services. Similar products and services offered by different companies will have different features and you should always read about product details before acquiring any financial product.

At-A-Glance

Reviewing your credit card statement every month can help you identify billing errors or fraudulent charges.

Every card issuer has its own statement layout, but they all generally outline the same basic information.

If you have a credit card, it’s important to be able to decipher your credit card statement. First, it will tell you how much is due each month and when. Beyond that, it’s a good idea to regularly review your statement to make sure there are no fraudulent charges. Here’s a general explanation of the anatomy of a credit card statement to help you understand all the relevant account information it includes.

What Is a Credit Card Statement?

• Account summary.
• Payment information.
• Late payment and minimum payment warnings.
• Rewards balance.
• Notice of account change or account messages.
• Transaction history or account activity.
• Fees and interest charged.

Account Summary

Usually appearing at the top of your credit card statement, the account summary offers a brief overview of how your new balance was calculated, as well as your new balance and credit limit.

Information you can expect to find in this section includes the following:

• Previous balance: How much you owed at the end of the previous billing cycle.
• Payments and credits: How much you paid toward the previous balance and/or how much credit you’ve received.
• Purchases: A sum of your new charges for this billing cycle.
• Balance transfers: Your balance transfer amount for this billing cycle.
• Cash advances: A sum of all cash advances made during this billing cycle.
• Fees charged: A sum of all fees charged during this billing cycle, such as late fees or foreign transaction fees.
• Interest charged: A sum of all interest charged during the billing cycle.
• New balance: Your new total balance, after factoring in your previous balance, credits, new purchases, balance transfers, cash advances, fees charged, and interest charged.
• Credit limit: Your total credit limit, sometimes listed as “credit line.”
• Available credit: What’s left of your total limit after deducting your current owed balance.
• Cash advance limit: Your total cash advance limit, also referred to as “cash advance credit line” or “cash access line.”
• Available for cash advance: What’s left of your total cash advance limit, after deducting your current owed cash advance balance.

This section might also include the billing cycle dates. You should also see your name and mailing address somewhere near the account summary.

Payment Information

This section of your credit card statement clearly and simply shows your owed balance, minimum payment due, and payment due date. It usually appears adjacent to or near the account summary described above.

Information you can expect to find includes the following:

• Current balance:Your total owed balance, calculated as described in the above section.
• Minimum payment due: Either a percentage of the owed balance or a flat fee, depending on your card’s terms and conditions.
• Due date: The date your minimum payment is due. Note that you might be subject to a late fee if you fail to make a payment by the due date listed on your statement. The fee would be charged on the next billing cycle.

Late Payment and Minimum Payment Warnings

Depending on the card issuer, late payment and minimum payment warnings might appear as their own highlighted sections, or they may appear within or in close proximity to the payment information sections. Here’s what each means:

• Late payment warning: The credit card issuer informs you of any late fees and/or penalty APRs if you don’t make the minimum payment by the established payment due date.
• Minimum payment warning: Credit card issuers provide an estimate of how long it’ll take to pay off your full balance if you were to pay only the minimum amount due, as well as an estimate of the interest you may incur from doing so. The information in the minimum payment warning could change, depending on the balance and how long it would take you to pay it.

Rewards Balance

If you have a rewards credit card, your issuer will usually show you your total rewards balance, and may also include a breakdown of your rewards earnings for the billing cycle. Your rewards summary usually appears somewhere near the top of your credit card statement.

Notice of Account Changes or Account Messages

Further down in your credit card statement, you might see a section devoted to “account messages,” “account changes,” or something similar. Here, the card issuer may notify you if any important account information is changing. For example, fee increases or APR changes could appear here, as well as benefits changes, such as adjustments to your card’s car rental loss and damage collision waiver, if applicable. Keep in mind that your credit card issuer may notify you of changes via a separate letter instead.

Transaction History or Account Activity

Despite the extensive information described above, this section is probably what comes to mind when you think of a “credit card statement.” Your transaction history or account history provides a summary of your spending for the billing cycle in table format, showing when, where, and how much was spent. It’s important to double-check this section for any unrecognized transactions, and contact your credit card issuer if you come across any potential billing errors or fraudulent charges.

Here’s what’s typically presented:

• Posted date: The date the transaction was posted. Posted date does not always correspond with actual purchase date, since transactions can remain “pending” for a couple of days before they’re actually posted.
• Vendor name and location: The name of the business you transacted with and its location (usually state or town and state). Note that some vendors register their businesses under a different name than what appears at the shop or on its website. If you don’t recognize a vendor name, a quick online search can usually help you determine the charge’s legitimacy. If unsure, contact your credit card issuer and give them the vendor’s name to check the transaction.
• Amount: How much was spent on each transaction, plus a total sum at the end of the list.
  

Some credit card issuers will also list each charge’s associated spending category or merchant category, such as travel, transportation, groceries, or entertainment.

Fees and Interest Charged

After your transaction history, your credit card statement will likely provide a summary of fees and interest charged. You might see an overview of all charges for the billing cycle, as well as a year-to-date summary of how much you’ve paid in fees and interest charges for the current calendar year.

Near or within the same section, you might see a section for “interest calculation.” This is a summary of the interest rates charged for each type of transaction – purchase, cash advance, and balance transfer — and what part of your balance is subject to relevant interest rates.

The Takeaway

Your credit card statement gives you information necessary for tracking your credit card spending and how much you owe in each billing cycle. Carefully reviewing your credit card statement every month is a healthy financial habit that can help you spot fraudulent charges and billing errors, keep you on top of any upcoming changes to your account terms, and monitor your financial habits.

Megan Doyle is a business technology writer and researcher whose work focuses on financial services and cross-cultural diversity and inclusion.

All Credit Intel content is written by freelance authors and commissioned and paid for by American Express.