Personal Credit
In the simplest terms, your personal credit is your reputation for paying your debts on time.

Purchases
Credit card charges you make at merchants — either online or at stores. These will show on your monthly statement and are usually lumped together as Purchases. Purchases usually have a lower APR than Advances and there are no transaction fees.

Personal credit history
A compilation of your personal and financial data which contains a history of past and current credit transactions, including any accounts with banks, retailers, credit card companies, and other lenders.

Penalty Fees
Credit card issuers generally encourage good financial behavior by penalizing bad behavior. You can expect to be charged (sometimes a hefty fee!) for things like going over your limit, making late payments, and bouncing checks.

Periodic Rate
Based on how your credit card issuer calculates your finance charges, this is your interest rate described in relation to a certain amount of time. For example, a monthly periodic rate is the cost of credit per month; the daily periodic rate is the cost of credit per day.

Prime Rate
The Prime Rate, published daily in the nation's leading financial publications, is a financial index offered by some of the U.S.'s largest banks reflecting the current domestic and world economies. The Prime Rate is the base rate for most variable APRs (expressed as the Prime Rate + another set rate). In fact, the continual fluctuation of the Prime Rate is what makes some APRs "variable".

Penalty APR
Also called a Default APR, a penalty APR may be enstated when cardholders default on some term of their credit agreement, such as missing payments or exceeding credit limits. Penalty APRs are continually on the rise, currently soaring as high as prime +25.99%. Some credit cards claiming a "universal default" may even charge higher interest rates when you default with another creditor.

Previous balance
The amount owed at the end of the previous billing period, which excludes any payments, credits and new purchases during the current billing period. Some creditors also exclude unpaid finance charges.

Periodic rate
The interest rate described in relation to a specific amount of time. The monthly periodic rate, or cost of credit per month, can be calculated by dividing the annual percentage rate(APR) by 12. The daily periodic rate, or cost of credit per day, can be calculated by dividing the APR by 365.

Pre approved line of credit
Creditors offer "pre approved" credit to potential customers that have passed some type of preliminary credit screening. Creditors may still deny you credit, based on other information provided in your application or found on your credit report, even if you were "pre approved".

PIN (Personal Identification Number)
A security code that the customer uses with debit and credit cards to authorize transactions such as cash advances. This PIN is different from the user ID and password customers use to access account information online.

Post Date
The date the transaction appeared on the account.

Prior Closing Date
The date your last statement was produced.

Point Of Sale (POS)
Location in a merchant establishment at which the sale is consummated by payment for goods or services received.

Primary Account Number (PAN)
The number that is embossed, encoded, or both, on a plastic card that identifies the issuer and the particular cardholder account.

Prior Authorization
An authorization usually done before a transaction takes place. The approved authorization request may be held for an extended length of time before a card is present or not.

Processing Date
The date on which the transaction is processed by the acquiring bank.