Credit cards are at the heart of CardPulse. Each card carries its own billing cycle, credit limit, NLP aliases, and color identity — making it easy to track spending, utilization, and payments across your entire portfolio.
- 🌐 Overview
- ➕ Adding a Card
- 📋 Card Fields
- 🔄 Understanding Billing Cycles
- 📊 Credit Utilization Tracking
- 🧠 Card Aliases for NLP
- 🚫 Deactivating Cards
- 🗺️ Where Cards Appear
The Cards page (/cards) shows all registered credit cards as visual card-shaped displays. Active cards appear in the main grid; inactive cards are tucked away in a collapsed section below.
Each card display shows at a glance:
- 🏷️ Card name, bank, and last 4 digits
- 📅 Current billing cycle date range
- ⏰ Days until statement and due date
- 📊 Spending breakdown (purchases + EMIs = estimated bill)
- 📏 Credit utilization bar (when a credit limit is set)
- 🚨 Due date alerts with urgency colors
Click the Add Card button to open the card form. Fill in the required fields and save.
When you create a card, CardPulse automatically:
- 🏷️ Creates a matching label in the labels table (e.g., "My New Card")
- 🧠 Generates default aliases from the card name and bank name for NLP matching
💡 You can customize aliases later in the card edit form. See Card Aliases for NLP below.
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 🏷️ Name | ✅ | Unique display name (e.g., "My Premium Card"). Also becomes the auto-created label name. |
| 🏦 Bank | ✅ | Bank name (e.g., "Example Bank"). |
| 🔢 Last 4 Digits | ❌ | Last 4 of the card number. Displayed as ···XXXX. Must be exactly 4 digits if provided. |
| 📅 Cycle Start Day | ✅ | Day of month (1–31) when the billing cycle begins. |
| 📅 Cycle End Day | ✅ | Day of month (1–31) when the billing cycle ends. Use 31 for "last day of month." |
| 📄 Statement Day | ✅ | Day the bank generates the monthly statement. |
| 💸 Due Day | ✅ | Day payment is due after statement generation. |
| 💰 Credit Limit | ❌ | Maximum credit in your configured currency. Enables utilization tracking when set. |
| 🎨 Color | ✅ | Hex color used across the app — charts, badges, borders, dots. |
| 🧠 Aliases | ❌ | Comma-separated short names for NLP matching (e.g., "mycard, premium, my bank"). |
Billing cycles define when charges accumulate and when payment is due.
| Setting | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
cycle_start = 10 |
Charges begin accumulating on the 10th | 10th Jan |
cycle_end = 9 |
Cycle closes on the 9th of the next month | 9th Feb |
| Result | One full billing period | Jan 10 → Feb 9 |
CardPulse handles months with different lengths automatically:
⚠️ Ifcycle_endis 31, the app caps to the actual last day of the month:
- 📅 February → 28th (or 29th in leap years)
- 📅 April, June, September, November → 30th
- 📅 All other months → 31st
Same capping applies to
cycle_start— no month will try to start on a day that doesn't exist.
The statement and due date follow a fixed relationship:
📄 Statement generated on statement_day (at cycle end)
│
▼
💸 Payment due on due_day (fixed gap after statement)
| Condition | Due Date Timing | Example |
|---|---|---|
due_day > statement_day |
Due in the same month as statement | Card E: statement 1st → due 26th (same month) |
due_day ≤ statement_day |
Due in the next month after statement | Card B: statement 31st → due 25th (next month) |
💡 Examples:
Card Statement Due Gap 🔵 Card A 9th 3rd (next month) 25 days 🟡 Card B 31st 25th (next month) 25 days 🟢 Card C 31st 25th (next month) 25 days 🟣 Card D 23rd 19th (next month) 27 days 🔵 Card E 1st 26th (same month) 25 days
When a credit limit is set on a card, CardPulse tracks utilization across the app with consistent color thresholds:
| Utilization | Color | Visual Effect |
|---|---|---|
| < 75% | 🟢 Green | Normal display, healthy usage |
| 75–100% | 🟡 Gold | Gold border on card, gold progress bar, warning text |
| ≥ 100% | 🔴 Red | Red danger glow, red border, alert triangle icon |
Utilization % = (Cycle Purchases + EMI Installments) / Credit Limit × 100
💡 Both purchases and EMIs count. A card with AED 1,000 in purchases and AED 500 in EMI installments against a AED 2,000 limit shows 75% utilization (gold warning).
⚠️ No credit limit set? The utilization bar and thresholds are hidden entirely for that card. Set a limit in the card edit form to enable tracking.
Aliases are short names that the NLP parser recognizes when you use Quick Add. For example, typing "premium" matches My Premium Card because "premium" is one of its aliases.
- 🔧 Default aliases are auto-generated from the card name and bank name when you create a card
- ✏️ Customize them in the card edit form as a comma-separated list
- 🎯 Format:
premium, premium card, my bank, my bank card
The parser prioritizes accuracy over guessing:
| Situation | Parser Behavior |
|---|---|
🎯 "premium rewards" → matches only one card |
✅ Auto-assigns card |
🎯 "travel" → matches only one card |
✅ Auto-assigns card |
"cashback" → could match 2 cards with that alias |
❌ No auto-assign, you pick |
"bank name" → could match multiple cards at same bank |
❌ No auto-assign, you pick |
🛡️ Rule of thumb: More specific aliases always win. If an alias is ambiguous (could match 2+ cards), the parser won't guess — the Card dropdown stays at "None (Cash/Bank)" and you select manually.
See Transaction Entry for details on how card matching fits into the full NLP pipeline.
Instead of deleting cards (which would orphan transactions), you can deactivate them:
- 🔄 Click the toggle on a card display, or edit the card and uncheck "Active"
- 📁 Inactive cards move to the "Inactive Cards" section (collapsed by default)
- 🚫 Inactive cards don't appear in:
- Transaction form dropdowns
- NLP card matching
- Dashboard active card displays
- 📊 All historical transactions and analytics are preserved
💡 Reactivate anytime — toggle the card back to active and it reappears everywhere.
Cards are referenced throughout the CardPulse app:
| Location | How Cards Are Shown |
|---|---|
| 🏠 Dashboard — Hero | Per-card spend columns with color dots |
| 💸 Dashboard — Payments | Due dates and amounts per card |
| 📊 Dashboard — Credit Overview | Utilization bars per card |
| 🔄 Dashboard — Cycle Status | Full cycle detail per card |
| 📝 Transaction Form | Card dropdown with color dots |
| 📃 Transaction List | Card badge on each row |
| 📈 Analytics — Cards tab | Grouped bars or individual area charts |
| ⏱️ Analytics — Cycles tab | 3-cycle timeline per card |
| 📦 EMI Tracker | EMIs grouped by card |
| 🧠 NLP Parser | Card aliases for auto-detection |
| 📢 Payment Ticker | Scrolling due date alerts per card |
← Previous: Transaction Entry | → Next: EMI Tracker