Understanding Citi’s monthly credit card statement

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Your Account Number is a 16-digit number, which may or may not be the same as your card number. In this section you’ll also find the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) for Retail Purchases and for Cash Advances.

Retail Purchases are the most common types of transactions you make and includes everything that isn’t a Cash Advance or a Balance Transfer (if either are applicable for you). Retail Purchases include when you tap your card instore, make a purchase with Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay, type your card number in at an online checkout. You can find a full definition of what Retail Purchases are as part of your applicable Terms & Conditions.

Cash Advances include those transactions when you might use your credit card to withdraw cash at an ATM. This will attract a higher APR than Retail Purchases do. Balance Transfers that aren’t paid off in full within the promotional period will also attract the Cash Advance rate. You can find a full definition of what Cash Advances are as part of your applicable Terms & Conditions.

What you need to pay at a glance

The Snapshot section summarises some critical information and includes:

• What period your statement covers, which is used as part of the calculation for any applicable interest charges;
• What amounts you need to pay; and
• When you need to pay them.

Overdue Amount is any charge from a previous monthly statement that is now overdue. This must be paid off immediately so that your account remains in good standing (for example – your account is not in default, suspended or closed).

Overlimit Amount is any amount you’ve spent over Your Credit Limit. For example, if your Credit Limit is $10,000 but you have spent $10,100 then the difference of $100 is due to be paid back to your credit card account immediately.

Closing Balance is the total amount owed at the end of the monthly Statement Period. If you pay this off in full, there won’t be any interest charges in the future for those payments that you have repaid. Paying off the Closing Balance also helps to maximise the Interest Free Days on purchases for your credit card account.

Minimum Payment Due is the minimum amount you need to pay which is calculated as follows:
1. the greater of:

• (a) $25, or if the card balance is less than $25, the card balance; or
• (b) 2.00% of the card balance as at the end of the statement period (rounded up to the nearest dollar);

2. plus any monthly instalment, initial interest charge, Fixed Payment Option fee or related interest on any of them, that is part of a Fixed Payment Option for that month.

Minimum Payment Due Date is the date by which we must receive your payment. Late payment fees may apply if your payment exceeds this date.

Reviewing your credit limit information

Your Credit Limit is just that, the total amount of credit made available for you to use. This limit is determined by us at the time of your credit application (or after your initial application and only at your request) and is based on several factors including, and not limited to, your income, recurring expenses and credit history.

Your Available Credit Limit is how much of your Credit Limit is still available to you, after subtracting your current balance, on the date your statement was generated.

Your Total Cash Limit is the percentage of your Credit Limit, that can be used for Cash Advances. Please note, we will only ever allow you to use a portion of your total Credit Limit for Cash Advances, not the full amount.

Opening and closing balance

Your Statement Summary is one of the most important parts of your statement and gives you an overall picture of your account and spending.

Opening Balance is the same as the Closing Balance from your last statement. If it is your first ever statement, or if you fully paid off your last statement, the Opening Balance will be $0.

Closing Balance is the total amount outstanding on your account at the end of the Statement Period. This includes any Fixed Payment Option (FPO) balance not yet due for payment.

Total FPO Balance Outstanding is the total outstanding amount of any Fixed Payment Options you have.

Closing Balance (less FPO balance not yet due) is particularly important. This is the amount you need to pay in full by the payment due date to retain the benefit of an interest free period you may have, or to recommence an interest free period on any Retail Purchases. This balance includes all credits and debits during the Statement Period, including any FPO instalments due in that statement period. You can read more about understanding monthly instalments a little further down (if this is applicable for you).

Keeping a tab on your points

If you have a credit card that earns reward points, such as Citi reward Points or Qantas Frequent Flyer Points, here is where you will see your points earning summary for the monthly Statement Period.

Points Earned this period is the number of Points that you have earned and the Bonus Points Earned for the monthly Statement Period if applicable. Bonus Points are defined in your applicable Terms & Conditions.

Also displayed are your Total Points Earned (which is the total of Points Earned and Bonus Points Earned) and the Total Points Earned to Date since your account was opened.

Understanding the minimum repayment warning

Every credit card statement includes an important disclosure that is required by the Australian Government. This tells you how long it would take to pay off your credit card balance by only paying the minimum required payment, or how much you would need to pay to fully pay the balance off in 2 years.

Please note this summary does not fully consider your personal circumstances and behaviour, for example it does not take into account any promotional rates and assumes you don’t make any new purchases, among other things. 

If you are struggling to make your credit card repayments, please contact us so we can discuss options that may assist you.

Paying back your credit card account

The payment slip section found on the first page of your monthly statement outlines the various ways that you can make repayments to your credit card account.

Making your repayments by Easi-Pay direct debit is the easiest way to pay.

Alternatively, you can make repayments through BPAY or at Australia Post.

Reviewing your monthly spending

One of the key sections of your monthly statement will be the listing of all your transactions for the Statement Period; however, please note this won’t include any transactions that are still pending, so there can be purchases that you have made that won’t appear until your next monthly statement.

For each transaction you’ll find the date of the purchase, the transaction details (for example the retailer you spent with and where they are located), a transaction reference number should you need to contact our customer service team, in addition to the purchase amount itself.

You should review each line item every month to make sure there are no unexpected charges. If you see any unexpected charges, you should immediately contact our customer service team and lodge a transaction dispute.

If applicable you will also find an itemized list of instalment plan interest charge amounts, which you can find out more about below in the Fixed Payment Option summary.

Lastly, we will also show you any other applicable fees and charges, such as your annual card fee, if you have one.

Special promotions on your account

If you took up a Balance Transfer at the time of opening your account or took one up later as part of a promotional offer, those details can be found on your monthly statement as well.

Included you’ll find the date your Balance Transfer plan will end. Do note that after the Balance Transfer’s expiry, any unpaid balance will revert to your card’s Cash Advance rate, so it’s important that you take full advantage of the promotional period. You can identify the applicable Cash Advance rate in the statement header.

Also included is the Opening Balance, Closing Balance and the applicable Annual Percentage Rate we offered to you for that Balance Transfer offer.

Special promotions are defined in your applicable Terms & Conditions.

Tracking your instalments

From time to time we offer instalment plans that allow you to repay a purchase, or purchases, at a set rate over a fixed term.

At the time your instalment plan was processed, in addition to confirming the duration of your instalment plan and the APR of your instalment plan, we provided a schedule confirming when your payments would be due, including the Monthly Instalment amounts made up of principal and interest payments respectively.

Your monthly statement helps you to check your progress with making instalment payments.

This summary also includes an instalment plan number for each payment that you can reference for any customer service inquiries you might need to make.