Can You Change Your Credit Card Due Date? Yes, and Here's How

When you only have a couple of cards, due dates are easy. Then you pick up a few more for welcome bonuses (guilty), and suddenly something is due almost every week, each on its own random day.

The good news is that you can usually just ask the bank to move your due date. Most of them let you do it online in a couple of minutes.

Can You Change Your Due Date?

Yes, in most cases. Banks aren't required to let you, but the big ones generally do. A few things are true almost everywhere:

• You usually pick a date from the 1st to the 28th. Some banks block certain dates, but most give you a range to choose from.
• It doesn't happen right away. The new date usually kicks in after one or two billing cycles. At Capital One, it can take up to two months.
• It won't hurt your credit. Changing the date has no effect on your score. Just don't miss a payment while you're switching over.
• There may be a limit. American Express allows one change every three billing cycles, for example, while Chase doesn't set a limit unless the account is in default.

How to Change It

For most banks, it's in your online account. Look for something like "Change payment due date" in the payments or account services section.

A few examples:

• American Express: For credit cards, there's a link at the bottom of the payment page in your online account. For charge cards like the Gold or Platinum, you chat with customer service from your online account.
• Bank of America may ask you to call the number on the back of your card.
• Most other big banks have the option somewhere in your online account, usually near your payment settings.

If you can't find the option, call the number on the back of the card and ask. It takes a few minutes.

Keep Paying the Old Date Until the New One Shows Up

This is the part that trips people up. Until your statement actually shows the new due date, the old one still counts. If you stop paying on the old date because you think the change already went through, you can end up with a late payment.

I'd keep autopay running and check your next statement before you change anything else.

Why Bother Lining Up Your Due Dates?

When you have more than a few cards, picking one or two dates for everything makes life so much simpler. A couple of setups that work well:

• Everything due right after payday. If you get paid on the 1st, set every card for the 5th or so.
• Two dates a month. If you're paid twice a month, split your cards between the two paydays.

Fewer dates means fewer chances to forget one, and that matters a lot. A payment that's 30 days late can hurt your score no matter how many cards you have.

The Due Date Isn't the Statement Date

Your due date and your statement closing date are two different things. At some banks, changing one moves the other, and at others it doesn't, so check your next statement to see where your closing date landed. That matters because your statement balance is usually what gets reported to the credit bureaus, so if you care about your utilization, you'll want to know your statement date too. I wrote more about that in statement date vs due date.

The Quick Version

• Most banks let you change your due date, usually to any day from the 1st to the 28th.
• Do it in your online account or by calling the number on the back of your card.
• The change takes one or two billing cycles, so keep paying on the old date until your statement shows the new one.
• It doesn't affect your credit score.
• Lining up all your cards on one or two dates makes missed payments much less likely.

If you want to see every card's due date on one screen, Cardinate shows them all together and reminds you before each one. Free to start, no bank login needed.

Sources

• NerdWallet: Can you change your credit card due date?
• American Express: Change payment due date
• Chase: How to change your credit card payment due date
• Experian: How to change your credit card due date
• Doctor of Credit: Which credit card issuers let you change your statement closing date?