Most credit cards allow you to pay off purchases without being charged interest, by taking advantage of their "grace period." This is an amount of time in which you can pay off a debt without incurring finance charges. It is usually about 25 days. To make use of a grace period, pay your bills in full each month by the payment due date. If you owe any money on your previous statement (referred to as having an "outstanding" or "previous" balance), in most cases you will lose the benefit of having a grace period on new purchases for the current month.