Once you’re registered, you may even be able to download your credit card’s app to manage your account on your smartphone or tablet. If you’ve haven’t signed up for an online account with any of your credit cards, you’re missing out on a bunch of great benefits and conveniences. Check out these seven benefits of creating an online credit card account.
View Current and Previous Billing Statements
If you’ve misplaced your current billing statement or you want to go back and look at a previous billing statement, you can log on to your credit card’s online account and pull up the statement. You can even sign up for paperless billing and receive your credit card statements online instead of by mail.
Monitor Transactions Almost Real Time
You don’t have to wait for your billing statement to come in the mail to catch fraudulent transactions. Purchases typically show up on your online account sometimes instantly, but at most within a few days. If you’re regularly monitoring your account, you’ll be able to catch and report unauthorized transactions much faster.
Pay Your Bill
You can check your next minimum payment amount and due date and make your credit card payment directly on your credit card issuer’s website. All you need is your checking account and routing number (unfortunately, you can’t pay one credit card with another). Depending on your bank and card issuer, you may be able to make the same day payment, allowing you to avoid expensive late fees.
Check Your Balance
You can log on to your online account before making new purchases or confirm that recent payments or other transactions have processed. Your online account will reflect your credit card balance including pending transactions that haven’t posted yet. This balance is almost always more accurate than the balance listed on your credit card statement. Logging on to check your balance is much easier than calling your card issuer to check your balance because you don’t have to press a bunch of buttons or navigate a complicated menu.
View Your Rewards Balance
The rewards balance listed on your credit card statement won’t reflect rewards that have posted to your account since your last billing statement. Logging into your online account will show your current rewards balance and may even give you the ability to view your rewards history or redeem rewards.
Easy Reporting for Lost or Stolen Credit Cards
It’s hard to report a lost or stolen credit card when the information you need to contact your card’s customer service is on the card itself. Logging onto your card issuer’s website will allow you to report a missing credit card and have a new one sent to you. You can also check your account transactions to see if your card has been used since it went missing and call your card issuer to report these unauthorized charges.
Manage Via a Smartphone App
Most major credit card issuers have a smartphone app for iOS and Android users. Visit the App Store or Google Play and search for your card issuer’s name to get the app for your credit card issuer. Once you’ve downloaded the app, you can log in with your username and password to check your balance, make a payment, and most other actions you can take on the website.
Safety Tips
To avoid scams and prevent your login information getting into the wrong hands, always make sure you’re at the correct website and never enter your information into a webpage you arrived at by clicking on a link.
