Credit Cards
Canadian credit-card terms such as statement balances, grace periods, minimum payments, and day-to-day account use.
Credit Cards explains the language readers encounter on card statements, application pages, and cardholder agreements. It connects everyday card use to broader credit concepts such as utilization, revolving borrowing, payment timing, and delinquency risk.
This section is the right place to start when a reader is trying to understand what a balance really means, why paying only the minimum is risky, how a grace period changes interest cost, how pricing changes across purchases, transfers, and cash advances, or how secured, supplementary, and joint card arrangements differ.
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In this section
- Credit Card
A credit card is a revolving credit account that lets a borrower make purchases up to an approved limit.
- Grace Period
A grace period is the interest-free purchase window that can apply between a card statement date and its payment due date.
- Cardholder Agreement
A cardholder agreement is the contract that sets the credit card's rates, fees, payment rules, and account terms.
- Minimum Payment
A minimum payment is the lowest amount the issuer requires by the due date to keep a card account current.
- Billing Cycle
A billing cycle is the repeating account period that groups card activity before the statement date closes the cycle.
- Statement Date
Statement date is the date when the card billing cycle closes and the statement snapshot is produced.
- Statement Balance
A statement balance is the amount shown as owing when a card billing cycle closes.
- Purchase Interest Rate
Card rate applied to ordinary purchases when the balance is carried past the grace period.
- Credit Card Fee
Charge connected to holding or using a credit card, separate from interest on carried balances.
- Annual Fee
An annual fee is the recurring yearly charge attached to some credit cards.
- Current Balance
Current balance is the live amount currently owed on a credit card after recent purchases, payments, and credits.
- Foreign Transaction Fee
Credit-card charge that can apply when a purchase or transaction is processed in a foreign currency.
- Pending Transaction
A pending transaction is card activity that has been authorized but has not yet fully posted to the account.
- Posted Transaction
A posted transaction is card activity that has finalized on the account record and now counts as a settled entry.
- Payment Posting Date
Payment posting date is the date a card payment is recorded to the account rather than simply initiated by the borrower.
- Over-Limit
Over-limit means the card balance has moved above the approved credit limit.
- Payment Allocation
Payment allocation is the way a card issuer applies a payment across different balances on the same account.
- Returned Payment Fee
Credit-card fee that can apply when a payment to the card is rejected, reversed, or returned unpaid.
- Over-Limit Fee
Credit-card fee that may apply when the account balance moves above the approved credit limit under the card terms.
- Balance Transfer
A balance transfer moves debt from one credit account to another, usually to change the rate or repayment structure.
- Promotional Balance Transfer
Limited-time balance transfer offer with special pricing used to move card debt more cheaply for a period.
- Introductory Rate
An introductory rate is temporary promotional pricing that applies for a limited period before regular credit-card pricing returns.
- Cash Advance
A cash advance is a credit-card transaction that gives access to cash or a cash-like amount instead of an ordinary purchase.
- Cash Advance Interest Rate
Cash advance interest rate is the card rate applied to cash-advance balances, often without the same grace treatment as purchases.
- Cash Advance Fee
A cash advance fee is the charge applied when a credit-card transaction is treated as a cash advance.
- Secured Credit Card
A secured credit card is a card account backed by a security deposit or other pledged support.
- Supplementary Cardholder
Additional person allowed to use a primary card account without necessarily being the main borrower.
- Chargeback
A chargeback is the reversal process used when a card transaction is challenged and the issuer takes the dispute back through the payment system.
- Joint Card Account
A joint card account is a credit card structure shared by two borrowers at the account level.