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Just got my first ever Credit Card(Amazon Pay ICICI) . Please help me understand Billing Cycles and payments?

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vpsjdon

vpsjdon

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I'm someone who dislikes seeing a huge bill at the end of the month so I never bothered with credit cards before.

From what I've seen of my friends and family, credit cards give you a false sense of security that there's still money in your bank account even thought it might be earmarked for a credit bill at the end of the month.

The only reason I got one now is because 99% of my online shopping is from Amazon so not getting that Amazon Pay ICICI credit card seemed like leaving money on the table.

What I usually do is pay using the card, let the item arrive and once I'm satisfied that it's okay, I pay the amount back to the card without waiting for the end of the billing cycle.

So my cycle for the first month ended on April 12th. I had a due of 585/ and due date of 30th April.

On 12th April evening I bought a product of Rs 964/ and after it got delivered a few days ago, I paid back the 964 INR to the card using Amazon after confirming that item was fine.

Question: Did I pay my credit card bill for the month of March-April?

The purchase of Rs 964/- was _after_ the statement was generated so I'm assuming it will be charged in the next month's billing cycle, right? In the statement ICICI emailed me, the transaction date cut off was 10th April.

But what about the 964 I paid _to_ ICICI? Will it be considered as a part of the payment to the last billing cycle? Or will that be also adjusted in the next cycle?

Because I checked on ICICI and in the "last statement" tab, I still see the due as 585/ and still see the due date as 30th April.

Is there any way to confirm if my credit card bill is considered paid or not? Please help me out in understanding how this works.

Thank you
 
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Here's what i understand you need to know.

1. Bill generation date is like a fixed date which marks the end of the cycle month for your credit card. All txn done previously will be for the previous cycle, and all txn post - will be billed in the next cycle.

2. You can pay your credit card bill even before it's generated. So if you bought an item on 12th, or 13, you can very well pay off that much amount (irrespective of it being shown, or not)
What you can keep an eye on is - the available limit.

3. If you buy something, pay for it, and end up returning the product, you WILL get the money back in your CREDIT CARD.
Let's say your limit is 100k, you got a return of 10k - now your limit will reflect as 110k (and billed amount due will be -10k) it will sit in your cc.

4. You can change your cycle date as per your needs in the app. What i do is - set it after my salary credit date. So as soon as my salary comes, all my bills are paid, irrespective of their billing date.
Some may say this is an inefficient use, but i don't mind not getting that extra 3/12% on a puny amount.

DM if you need more clarity
 
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vpsjdon said:
I'm someone who dislikes seeing a huge bill at the end of the month so I never bothered with credit cards before.

From what I've seen of my friends and family, credit cards give you a false sense of security that there's still money in your bank account even thought it might be earmarked for a credit bill at the end of the month.

The only reason I got one now is because 99% of my online shopping is from Amazon so not getting that Amazon Pay ICICI credit card seemed like leaving money on the table.

What I usually do is pay using the card, let the item arrive and once I'm satisfied that it's okay, I pay the amount back to the card without waiting for the end of the billing cycle.

So my cycle for the first month ended on April 12th. I had a due of 585/ and due date of 30th April.

On 12th April evening I bought a product of Rs 964/ and after it got delivered today, I paid back the 964 INR to the card using Amazon.

Question: Did I pay my credit card bill for the month of March-April?

The purchase of Rs 964/- was _after_ the statement was generated so I'm assuming it will be charged in the next month's billing cycle, right? In the statement ICICI emailed me, the transaction date cut off was 10th April.

But what about the 964 I paid _to_ ICICI? Will it be considered as a part of the payment to the last billing cycle? Or will that be also adjusted in the next cycle?

Because I checked on ICICI and in the "last statement" tab, I still see the due as 585/ and still see the due date as 30th April.

Is there any way to confirm if my credit card bill is considered paid or not? Please help me out in understanding how this works.

Thank you
Click to expand...
Check the statement or if checking online then check last statement and "Total amount due". This amount is what you need to pay before "Payment Due Date".

You have not paid your bill of 585/-

Your payment of 964/- will be considered as payment in next billing cycle.
 
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vpsjdon said:
I'm someone who dislikes seeing a huge bill at the end of the month so I never bothered with credit cards before.

From what I've seen of my friends and family, credit cards give you a false sense of security that there's still money in your bank account even thought it might be earmarked for a credit bill at the end of the month.

The only reason I got one now is because 99% of my online shopping is from Amazon so not getting that Amazon Pay ICICI credit card seemed like leaving money on the table.

What I usually do is pay using the card, let the item arrive and once I'm satisfied that it's okay, I pay the amount back to the card without waiting for the end of the billing cycle.

So my cycle for the first month ended on April 12th. I had a due of 585/ and due date of 30th April.

On 12th April evening I bought a product of Rs 964/ and after it got delivered today, I paid back the 964 INR to the card using Amazon.

Question: Did I pay my credit card bill for the month of March-April?

The purchase of Rs 964/- was _after_ the statement was generated so I'm assuming it will be charged in the next month's billing cycle, right? In the statement ICICI emailed me, the transaction date cut off was 10th April.

But what about the 964 I paid _to_ ICICI? Will it be considered as a part of the payment to the last billing cycle? Or will that be also adjusted in the next cycle?

Because I checked on ICICI and in the "last statement" tab, I still see the due as 585/ and still see the due date as 30th April.

Is there any way to confirm if my credit card bill is considered paid or not? Please help me out in understanding how this works.

Thank you
Click to expand...
Banks can't know whether you are making payment against a specific transaction or you are paying your amount due from the previous billing cycle. If after bill generation, Payment made (Rs. 964) > Total Amount due (Rs. 585), then that means you have settled the bill. No need to make additional payment unless you need to reduce the total amount due for current billing cycle.
 
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pgarg24 said:
Apay cashback comes based on the bill generated right in amazon wallet? So if he is paying the amount before statement generation, wont cashback get lost in this case?
Click to expand...
Apay cashback comes once statement is generated in your Amazon wallet. This wallet balance can be used to shop or pay bills on Amazon or Amazon partner merchant. Apay cashback is not considered as payment towards your Apay credit card. Its separate thing.
 
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paresh22 said:
Apay cashback comes once statement is generated in your Amazon wallet. This wallet balance can be used to shop or pay bills on Amazon or Amazon partner merchant. Apay cashback is not considered as payment towards your Apay credit card. Its separate thing.
Click to expand...
Nope, I was reffering to a different thing. What I meant was, since the person who raised this post is paying the credit card amount back the next day he does the transaction, his card statement will not actually be his spends but only the remaining amount.

Because of this the actual statement generated at the end of the month will be only the remaining amount and basically he is losing his cashback despite doing all those transaction with Apay card on amazon site.
 
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pgarg24 said:
Nope, I was reffering to a different thing. What I meant was, since the person who raised this post is paying the credit card amount back the next day he does the transaction, his card statement will not actually be his spends but only the remaining amount.

Because of this the actual statement generated at the end of the month will be only the remaining amount and basically he is losing his cashback despite using Apay card on amazon site.
Click to expand...
Bro that's not how cashback is calculated on any card. Cashback is calculated on each spend from the card and not on total amount due. If I do 3 transactions of 1000 each on amazon and pay back 3000 before bill generation I would still get 1000*0.05*3= 150 as cashback even though my total amount due is 0.
 
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paresh22 said:
Check the statement or if checking online then check last statement and "Total amount due". This amount is what you need to pay before "Payment Due Date".

You have not paid your bill of 585/-

Your payment of 964/- will be considered as payment in next billing cycle.
Click to expand...
You are wrong. The payment of 964rs will be adjusted againt last statement balance of 585rs and remaining balance will be deducted from next billing. So his bill is paid for now.
 
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rp0703 said:
Bro that's not how cashback is calculated on any card. Cashback is calculated on each spend from the card and not on total amount due. If I do 3 transactions of 1000 each on amazon and pay back 3000 before bill generation I would still get 1000*0.05*3= 150 as cashback even though my total amount due is 0.
Click to expand...
Interesting, so what if I return the product and amazon issues a refund.. apay card company sees it coming from a business and then it doesnt consider it payment and it wont provide cashback on that transaction

or it will provide cashback as per what you are saying even after refund..? Coz that would be a hack basically.
 
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pgarg24 said:
Interesting, so what if I return the product and amazon issues a refund.. apay card company sees it coming from a business and then it doesnt consider it payment and it wont provide cashback on that transaction

or it will provide cashback as per what you are saying even after refund..? Coz that would be a hack basically.
Click to expand...
Obvious, if you return the product your cashback on the retuned product will also be reversed.
 
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Baruah said:
Try to pay back the amount after bill generation if your utilisation is low. If your utilisation is high then only paying before bill generation is recommended.
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Yeah I read somewhere that you shouldn't have a bill of more than 30% of your credit limit right? I'm thinking of leaving around ~1000 INR for the end of statement and paying the rest before the bill generation. Would this be wise?
 
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pgarg24 said:
Apay cashback comes based on the bill generated right in amazon wallet? So if he is paying the amount before statement generation, wont cashback get lost in this case?
Click to expand...
From what I've seen it doesn't matter. The bill statement has both debit and credit transactions listed and only the debit ones have rewards listed against them.

So if I use the card to buy an item of 1000 INR, and then pay 1000 INR immediately to ICICI.. the bill statement will show 1000 Debit - Reward- 50 .. and in the next line- 1000 CR .. Reward - 0

So whether I pay after bill generation or immediately after a transaction, I still get my cashback
 
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rp0703 said:
Banks can't know whether you are making payment against a specific transaction or you are paying your amount due from the previous billing cycle. If after bill generation, Payment made (Rs. 964) > Total Amount due (Rs. 585), then that means you have settled the bill. No need to make additional payment unless you need to reduce the total amount due for current billing cycle.
Click to expand...
Thank you. That's exactly what I wanted to confirm. The reason I had doubts is because NOWHERE can I see that my "bill" dated 12th April is paid. Neither on iMobile, nor on internet banking. I even tried ICICI's WhatsApp bot lol. I even emailed ICICI specifically asking if my bill was considered paid or not and they just kept replying with all my CR transactions without explicitly stating that my bill was paid.
 
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vpsjdon said:
Thank you. That's exactly what I wanted to confirm. The reason I had doubts is because NOWHERE can I see that my "bill" dated 12th April is paid. Neither on iMobile, nor on internet banking. I even tried ICICI's WhatsApp bot lol. I even emailed ICICI specifically asking if my bill was considered paid or not and they just kept replying with all my CR transactions without explicitly stating that my bill was paid.
Click to expand...
You can use Cred or Cheq to track the bill status if you are confused with iMobile. Once you paid through these apps, they mark the bill as fully paid. In addition you can also earn rewards.
 
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