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How Do You Check Your Credit Card Balance?

6 min read

Published September 10, 2025

Table of contents

Key Takeaways

Your credit card balance is the total amount you owe your credit card company at a given time.
You can check your credit card balance using your card issuer’s mobile app or online banking tool, calling your credit card issuer, or reviewing your statement.
Checking your credit card balance often can help you manage your credit utilization, fine-tune your budget, and shut down credit card fraud.

When it comes to managing your credit card account, ignorance isn’t bliss. By regularly checking your credit card balance—the amount you owe your credit card issuer at a given time—you can avoid overspending or missing payments and budget more effectively. Your balance is an important number—it reflects your unpaid transactions, interest charges, fees, balance transfers, and payments. And, fortunately, your balance is usually pretty easy to find.

How to check your credit card balance

Credit card issuers provide several methods for checking your credit card balance. You can choose the option that’s most convenient for you.

Check your balance through your card issuer's mobile app

Your credit card account balance is at your fingertips on your credit card issuer’s mobile app. After downloading the app, you may have to create a username and password to log into your account, depending on your card issuer.

Once you set up your account, you can log in at any time to take a look at your balance, make a payment, or review your transactions. Many apps list your balance on your homepage. Otherwise, you may have to navigate to it through the app’s menu.

The balance visible on your mobile app or online banking portal is typically your current balance, so it should include information about transactions, balance transfers, fees, or payments that have posted to your account since the last billing cycle closed.

While transactions may take some time to appear, your current balance gives you the most up-to-date information about your credit card outstanding balance and available credit at that moment.

Check your credit card balance online

You can also check your balance through your credit card company’s online banking portal. Like the mobile app, your online portal usually shows your current balance, though you can also access your statements online.

In addition to inputting your username and password, you may have to complete two-factor authentication to access the information in your account. That means you’ll receive an email, phone call, or text message with the information you need to log in.

Once you log in, you can check your balance, pay your credit card bill, set payment reminders, set up automatic monthly payments, and manage your account.

Find your credit card balance on your statements

Your monthly billing statement should also show your last credit card balance, plus other valuable info like interest charges, fees, and how long it might take you to repay your balance by making the monthly minimum payment.

You can access your paper credit card statement by mail or through your digital statement online; the information is the same.

Unlike your mobile app or digital banking portal, your credit card statement shows your “statement balance”, which is the amount you owed at the end of your last billing cycle. If you’ve used your card or made a payment since then, the changes appear in the next statement balance.

Call your card issuer

If you prefer a phone call, you can dial the number on the back of your credit card to contact your credit card issuer directly. You may have to provide some personal information over the phone to verify your identity, like your account number, birthdate, credit card number, or the last four digits of your Social Security number.

You might receive information about your account balance and available credit from an automated customer service menu. If you have questions or concerns about your account balance, you may ask to speak with a customer service representative.

Why it's important to check your credit card balance

Keeping an eye on your credit card balance is part of responsible financial management. By paying attention to your spending, you can avoid missteps that may hurt your credit score.

Track your spending

If you don’t monitor your balance, it’s easy to overspend and build too much credit card debt. Your credit utilization ratio increases as your outstanding balance approaches your credit limit. A high credit utilization ratio can damage your score and make it more difficult to repay your credit card debt.

When you regularly check your credit card balance, you can catch overspending early and pay down your balance long before you max out your credit limit.

Monitor for fraud

When you regularly check your credit card balance, you can quickly identify errors or fraudulent charges on your account. If you notice that your balance looks higher than it should be, for example, you should check your statement and review your transactions right away. If you notice fraudulent charges, you can dispute them and contact your credit card issuer to take the necessary steps to secure your account.

Prevent late payments

Late credit card payments can result in fees, higher interest rates, and a lower credit score. Without monitoring your balance, you may lose track of your payments and miss a due date.

But your credit card statement tells you exactly how long it would take to repay your balance in full if you make the minimum monthly payment. When you know your credit card balance well, you can adjust your bill payment amount so you can pay off your card quickly.

Refine your budget

Your credit card balance and transaction history offer key insights into your spending habits. For example, you may notice that you’ve been spending a lot of money going out for lunch or using your credit card more at the end of the month. With that information, you can make changes to your budget and spending habits to fit your financial goals.

Did you know?

Discover^® Cardmembers can check their balance on the Discover mobile app, but that’s not all. You can also categorize your transactions by type, set up automatic monthly payments, view offers for balance transfers, manage your rewards, and more.

See If You’re Pre-Approved

The bottom line

No matter how you choose to check your balance, it’s important to look regularly and address issues quickly. If you use your card often, you may want to review your balance each week. Or if you only occasionally use credit, monthly check-ins may work better for you. Once you find a cadence and method that fits your needs, you can make checking your balance a habit. When you’re well informed about your credit, you can make financial decisions with confidence.

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