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with my Amex credit card i have sometimes made payments to the account during the statement period, thereby reducing the balance prior to the statement being issued, reducing the direct debit which is set for the full amount.

a few months ago i made a payment to the account just after the statement date, spoke to them and was told that the direct debit would be reduced by that amount.. but it wasn't, my direct debit was still for the full amount. that didn't cause me a problem, but in theory it could have done.

is there a benefit to allowing a balance to remain on a card beyond the statement date? i recall way back reading that the full extent of credit building 'spend & repay' only applies if the balance is on the account at the statement date.

Spend up to credit limit - repay before statement - spend more, etc

I've heard of people being challenged by card issuers for this as to whether this is genuine personal spend rather than passing business spend through a personal card.

Why would you pay early? Even with low interest rates, I'd rather have the funds in my bank rather than paying early.

Paying early is handy for account churn on things such as Halifax Rewards (£500 a month spend nets a fiver) and for TSB S+S (requires 30 debit card payments a month, so Barclaycard allows 30x£1 transactions.

So some examples where it's hand to reduce the balance and let the DD pay the remainder.

pabenny wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 11 2021 2:14pm

Why would you pay early? Even with low interest rates, I'd rather have the funds in my bank rather than paying early.

me too, but it may be that i need to clear the balance to re-use the limit during the statement period.

If you pay before an expected direct debit, in some cases there'll be a cut-off date for it to be recognised and reduce the DD, whilst some other cards never reduce the DD once a statement has been generated. So, I presume that either you weren't quick enough or were given poor advice.

Remember as well being "in Credit" with some credit cards and charge cards when the statement is created can also incur a charge.
So if you get your calculation slightly wrong, it can cost you with a fixed fee which will wipe away any benefit of churning.
They don't like you in theory being owed money by them, they always want you owing money TO them.

Sarah wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 12 2021 10:22am

So, I presume that either you weren't quick enough or were given poor advice.

the latter in this case Sarah.. it was an Amex Cashback card. too the full statement balance even though they'd told me they would only take the remaining portion of it.