While making purchases through credit card it is very important to have an idea about the term billing cycle because if an individual does not have idea about this term he or she is likely to miss the credit card payment leading to high interest charges. Billing cycle is the time period from your last generated bill till next generated bill and all transactions done by you through credit card till the next bill is generated will appear in that billing cycle.
It can be better understood with the help of an example, suppose your billing cycle is 30 days and it starts on 1st of each month than all your purchases which you have made from 1st January till 31st January will appear in the billing cycle of 1st February. Many companies also provide grace period after billing cycle ends which is usually 15 to 20 days and if the cardholder does not pay even after grace period than interest is charged at higher rates on outstanding amount. Billing cycle period of most of the credit card companies is 30 days, however it may vary across companies and that is why one should carefully examine it before applying for credit card.