Illustration showing how a credit card's available limit is calculated from the card limit, current spending, and installments

Available limit is a term used for credit card limits.

In short, the amount left after subtracting the current billing period's spending plus the total of remaining installment amounts from the credit card limit is called the "available limit."

It can be expressed as: Available Limit = Card Limit - Used Limit.

For example:

  • Let the card limit be 1,000 TL.
  • Let the card's statement balance be 0 TL.
  • Let the card's spending within the current period be 400 TL.
  • Suppose a 400 TL purchase was made in 4 installments in the previous statement period, and the 2nd installment falls within the current period.
  • In this case, the card's Available Limit will equal Card Limit - Used Limit.

Used Limit: current-period spending (400) + unpaid portion of installments (200) = 600 TL.

Available Limit = 1000 - 600 = 400 TL.

So if a customer has more than one card from the same bank, is it always just the card limit that matters?

In that case, the customer limit also comes into play.

For example:

  • Let the customer's limit at the bank be 5,000 TL.
  • Card A, from the same bank, has a limit of 4,000 TL.
  • Card B, from the same bank, has a limit of 3,000 TL.

If the customer has used up the entire limit with Card A, they can make at most 1,000 TL in transactions with Card B. (5000 - 4000 = 1000)

If Card B also has current-period spending or installment transactions carried over from a previous period, those amounts will further reduce the available limit.