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10 minute read
April 6, 2023

About Credit Account Statements

A credit account statement contains a summary of account activity that occurred during a billing cycle. Marqeta’s credit platform enables the creation of account statements by storing the following data in the credit system of record for retrieval:

  • Statement summary.

  • Payment information.

  • Journal entries, including purchase transactions, interest charges, and fees.

  • Rewards.

  • Year-to-date totals.

  • Statement files.

Note
While Marqeta’s credit platform enables you to customize statements, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring that generated statements for account holders meet compliance and regulatory requirements.

At the end of this guide, you should understand:

  • How to retrieve statement data on a credit account.

  • The data you can display on a statement.

  • Best practices for statement creation.

Statement concepts

The following concepts apply to account statements:

  • The billing cycle, also called the billing period or statement period, is the time frame between billings. In a given billing cycle, any purchases made, fees incurred, credits given, and interest charged are reflected in the account statement for that billing cycle.

  • The billing cycle day is the day of the month a new billing cycle begins. At the end of a billing cycle, you bill the account holder for any unpaid purchases and fees incurred during the billing cycle.

Statement summary of account activity

The statement summary provides account holders with a snapshot of activity that occurred on the account since the previous billing statement.

To retrieve statement summary data for a specific statement, send a GET request to the /credit/accounts/{token}/statements/{statement_summary_token} endpoint. For the endpoint reference, see Retrieve account statement summary.

You can use statement summary data to display the following on an account statement:

  • Previous balance on the account.

  • Total amount of payments made toward the account balance.
    NOTE: If a payment is displayed as a positive value, it has a negative impact on the credit ledger. Conversely, a payment displayed as a negative value has a positive impact on the credit account ledger.

  • Total credits applied to the account, such as account adjustments, original credit transactions, refunds, and rewards.
    NOTE: If a credit is displayed as a positive value, it has a negative impact on the credit ledger. Conversely, a credit displayed as a negative value has a positive impact on the credit account ledger.

  • Total amount of purchases.

  • Past due amount.

  • Any fees charged.

  • Any interest charged.

  • New statement balance on the account.

  • Credit limit.

  • Available credit.

  • Statement opening and closing date.

  • Number of days in the billing cycle.

Payment information

The payment information provides account holders with details on the payments they must make to avoid interest and fees.

To retrieve payment information data for a specific statement, send a GET request to the /credit/accounts/{token}/statements/{statement_summary_token}/paymentinfo endpoint. For the endpoint reference, see Retrieve account statement payment information.

You can use payment information data to display the following on an account statement:

  • New statement balance on the account.

  • Minimum payment due - The minimum amount account holders need to pay in order to avoid penalty fees.

  • Payment due date - The date the account holder’s payment is due.

  • Payment cutoff date - The last day a payment can be made without charging interest and fees to the account.

  • Minimum payment warning - The total amount that account holders would pay and how long it would take to pay off their entire balance if they made only the minimum payment each billing cycle.

  • Three-year warning - The fixed monthly payment amount and the total amount that the account holder would pay in order to pay off the entire balance in three years.

  • Three year savings - The savings amount if the balance is paid off in three years, versus if only minimum payments are made.

Journal entries

A list of journal entries that were cleared during the billing cycle provides account holders with details on their historical purchases, interest charges, and fees, including whether the journal entry has been disputed.

Note
The default cutoff time for a statement period is 11:59:59 EST. If a journal entry is not cleared by 11:59:59 EST on your defined cutoff day, it will not appear on the statement for that billing cycle.

To retrieve journal entry data for a specific statement, send a GET request to the /credit/accounts/{token}/statements/{statement_summary_token}/journalentries endpoint. In the response, expand the detail_object to retrieve the journal entry’s full details, which varies based on the group value. For example, purchases return purchase details; adjustments return adjustment details; interest returns interest details; and more. For the endpoint reference, see List account statement journal entries.

The group field in the response body indicates the journal entry group type. A value of:

  • PURCHASE indicates a purchase transaction.

  • INTEREST indicates an interest charge.

  • FEE indicates a fee.

  • REWARD indicates a reward.

  • PAYMENT indicates a payment.

  • ADJUSTMENT indicates an adjustment on a journal entry.

  • BALANCE_REFUND indicates a credit balance refund.

  • ORIGINAL_CREDIT indicates an original credit transaction (OCT).

You can use journal entry data to display the following on an account statement:

  • Amount - The amount of the journal entry.

  • Group - The journal entry group type.

  • ID - An eight-digit numeric identifier of the journal entry.

  • Memo - The merchant or description of the journal entry.

  • Request time - The date the journal entry was made.

  • Created time - The date the journal entry was posted.

Interest

For journal entries in the interest group, you can use interest data to display the following on an account statement:

  • Total interest charged on purchases during this period.

Fees

For journal entries in the fees group, you can use fees data to display the following on an account statement:

  • Any fees charged during this period.

  • Total amount of fees charged during this period.

Rewards

A list of rewards provides account holders with details on any rewards applied to the account during the billing cycle.

To retrieve reward data for a specific statement, send a GET request to the /credit/accounts/{token}/statements/{statement_summary_token}/rewards endpoint. For the endpoint reference, see Retrieve account statement rewards.

You can use reward data to display the following on an account statement:

  • Previous billing cycle reward amount - The amount of rewards received in the previous billing cycle.

  • Current billing cycle reward amount - The amount of rewards received in the current billing cycle.

  • Adjusted rewards amount - The amount of any adjustments made to a reward.

  • Total rewards - The total amount of rewards received in the current billing cycle, including any reward adjustments.

Year-to-date totals

A year-to-date totals list provides account holders with details on their year-to-date totals of fees and interest.

To retrieve year-to-date data for a specific statement, send a GET request to the /credit/accounts/{token}/statements/{statement_summary_token}/yeartodate endpoint. For the endpoint reference, see Retrieve account statement year-to-date totals.

You can use year-to-date data to display the following year-to-date totals on an account statement:

  • Total posted fees charged year-to-date.

  • Total interest charged year-to-date.

Statement files

A statement file provides account holders with a PDF of their account statement.

To list statement files for a specific statement, send a GET request to the /credit/accounts/{account_token}/statements/{statement_summary_token}/files endpoint. For the endpoint reference, see List files for a statement summary.

Best practices for statement creation

The following best practices can help you create detailed and informative account statements.

  • Ensure your statements are configured to meet any compliance and regulatory requirements.

  • Include an account information section to provide account holders with their name, billing address, billing period, which tells account holders during which period the statement is for, and account history, which tells them how long their account has been active.

  • Include a notice of changes section to notify account holders of any changes to their account, including a change in credit pricing, fees, rewards, or customer support SLAs and contacts.

  • Include a warnings section to inform account holders of any warnings on their account, such as the minimum payment warning and late payment warning.

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