Originally Posted by
Lobachevsky
And, getting back to the earlier discussion, if the banks thought a credit limit should be the limit for a month's spending on a card, they could easily program it in. Simply don't make any more credit available, regardless of payments, until after the monthly statement closes.
Exactly. Your credit limit is just the total exposure that the bank is willing to risk at any given time.
So if your credit limit is $5k, the bank has weighed the risks of lending to you and determined that $5k is the most they’d be willing to lose if you default.