What is the difference between a charge card and a credit card?
A credit card lets you carry a balance month to month, subject to interest. A charge card requires you to pay the full balance every cycle — no revolving credit, usually no preset spending limit, and no purchase interest because carrying a balance isn't allowed.
Both are payment cards accepted wherever their network runs; the structural difference is repayment. Charge cards typically have no preset spending limit — your spending power flexes with income, history, and usage rather than a fixed cap — and require full payment each cycle, with late payments penalized and non-payment leading to suspension. Because you can't revolve a balance, there's no purchase APR on standard charges, though charge cards often carry higher annual fees tied to premium benefits (some issuers offer an optional Pay Over Time feature on eligible large purchases, which does accrue interest). A useful side effect: because charge cards have no preset limit, they're generally excluded from the credit utilization calculation in FICO scores, so a high balance on one typically doesn't hurt utilization the way a maxed-out credit card would.
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