# Customer credit balance

Learn how to work with customer credit balances.

> #### Customer balance types
> 
> This page is about customer credit balances, which are adjustments you can issue to customers that apply to future *invoices* (Invoices are statements of amounts owed by a customer. They track the status of payments from draft through paid or otherwise finalized. Subscriptions automatically generate invoices, or you can manually create a one-off invoice). Credit balances are different from cash balances. Cash balances are connected to the [customer balance payment method](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/bank-transfers.md). To learn more, see [Bank transfer](https://docs.stripe.com/invoicing/bank-transfer.md). As explained below, some features work differently for customers with a cash balance.

Every customer has a credit balance. You can use this to issue a:

- **Credit adjustment**—You owe the customer money.
- **Debit adjustment**—The customer owes you money.

These adjustments sum up to a credit balance that you can apply to future invoices. Because Stripe computes the credit balance from a ledger—an immutable list of debit and credit transactions—it provides an audit trail of transactions for the customer. The [Customer Balance Transactions](https://docs.stripe.com/api/customer_balance_transactions/object.md) can refer to the object related to the adjustment, such as a [credit note](https://docs.stripe.com/invoicing/dashboard/credit-notes.md), invoice, or [metadata](https://docs.stripe.com/api/metadata.md).

Some common use cases for customer credit balances include:

- [Issuing a credit note](https://docs.stripe.com/invoicing/dashboard/credit-notes.md#issuing) to create a credit that reduces the amount due on the next invoice.
- Marking an invoice as paid and moving the amount owed to the credit balance as a debit. This happens when the amount due on an invoice is less than the [minimum chargeable amount](https://docs.stripe.com/currencies.md#minimum-and-maximum-charge-amounts). This functionality only occurs for users without a [cash balance](https://docs.stripe.com/invoicing/customer/balance.md#cash-balances).

## Credit balances 

Keep the following in mind when you work with credit balances:

- The credit balance automatically applies to the next finalized invoice to a customer.
- You ​​can’t choose a specific invoice to apply the credit balance to.
- The credit balance is in the customer’s currency.
- *Customers* (Customer objects represent customers of your business. They let you reuse payment methods and give you the ability to track multiple payments) with a [cash balance](https://docs.stripe.com/api/customers/object.md#customer_object-cash_balance) can’t keep a positive balance. In other words, they can’t increase the amount due on the next invoice.

## Credits and debits 

Credits are negative values (a reduction in the amount the customer owes) that you can apply to the next invoice. Debits, on the other hand, are positive values (an increase in the amount the customer owes) that you can apply to the next invoice.

## Transactions 

All modifications to the credit balance are recorded as [Transactions](https://docs.stripe.com/api/customer_balance_transactions/object.md). After you create a transaction, you can only update its `description` or `metadata` (you can’t edit other properties or delete it).

### Transaction types 

All [Transactions](https://docs.stripe.com/api/customer_balance_transactions/object.md) that you create with the API or in the Dashboard have a [type](https://docs.stripe.com/api/customer_balance_transactions/object.md#customer_balance_transaction_object-type) value of `adjustment`. A type value of `adjustment` represents a debit or credit that you manually created for the customer. The following table describes each of the `type` values:

| Type                      | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `adjustment`              | An explicitly created adjustment transaction to debit or credit the credit balance. This is the only type of transaction that you can create by using API integrations and the Dashboard.                                                                                                                                                   |
| `applied_to_invoice`      | Traces the application of credit against a linked invoice.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| `credit_note`             | Traces the creation of credit to a [credit note](https://docs.stripe.com/invoicing/dashboard/credit-notes.md) and ​​its associated invoice.                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| `invoice_too_small`       | When the amount due on an invoice is less than Stripe’s [minimum chargeable amount](https://docs.stripe.com/currencies.md#minimum-and-maximum-charge-amounts) and the customer doesn’t have a cash balance, the invoice is debited from the credit balance and added to the amount due on the next invoice.                                 |
| `invoice_too_large`       | When the amount due on an invoice is greater than Stripe’s [maximum chargeable amount](https://docs.stripe.com/currencies.md#minimum-and-maximum-charge-amounts) and the customer doesn’t have a cash balance, the invoice is debited from the credit balance and added to the amount due on the next invoice.                              |
| `unapplied_from_invoice`  | Traces the reversal of an applied credit balance from a linked invoice. Paired with an earlier ‘applied_to_invoice’ transaction.                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| `unspent_receiver_credit` | When unspent funds in [receiver Sources](https://docs.stripe.com/sources.md#flow-for-customer-action) attached to a customer without cash balance aren’t fully charged after 60 days, Stripe automatically charges them on your behalf and credits your balance. When this happens, Stripe also creates a corresponding credit transaction. |
| `initial`                 | Represents the starting value of the credit balance when a customer is created by using the API with a non-zero credit balance.                                                                                                                                                                                                             |

### Undo a transaction 

You can only undo a transaction by creating a corresponding, reversing transaction. For example, if you credit the customer ​​10 USD, you’d have to debit them 10 USD in a new transaction, each canceling the other one out.

## Modify the credit balance 

You can modify a customer’s credit balance through both the Dashboard and API.

#### Dashboard

You can modify a customer’s credit balance through the [Customers page](https://dashboard.stripe.com/customers) in the Dashboard by creating a new [Customer Balance Transaction](https://docs.stripe.com/api/customer_balance_transactions/object.md) adjustment.

In the **Customers** page, click the customer and then click **Adjust balance** under **Credit balance**. From here, set the **Adjustment type**, a **Currency** (only available if the customer doesn’t have a currency set), an **Amount**, and an **internal note**.

> The **internal note** is only visible to Dashboard users.
![](https://b.stripecdn.com/docs-statics-srv/assets/2-Customer-balance.ed7d6df96ba2b8595461e1091e4da7a9.png)

Add a new customer balance transaction adjustment

#### API

To create an adjustment by using the [Customer Balance API](https://docs.stripe.com/api/customer_balance_transactions/create.md), use the following code as a reference:

```curl
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/customers/cus_4fdAW5ftNQow1a/balance_transactions \
  -u "<<YOUR_SECRET_KEY>>:" \
  -d amount=-500 \
  -d currency=usd
```

## Balance transaction history 

#### Dashboard

Audit a customer’s balance adjustments in the **Customers** page by scrolling down to the **Credit balance** section. This section displays the current value of the customer credit balance.

#### API

### Retrieve transactions 

Use the [Customer Balance List API](https://docs.stripe.com/api/customer_balance_transactions/list.md) to retrieve a list of all transactions for a customer.

```curl
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/customers/cus_4fdAW5ftNQow1a/balance_transactions \
  -u "<<YOUR_SECRET_KEY>>:"
```


## Customer cash balances 

Customers using the [bank transfers](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/bank-transfers.md) payment method have a [cash balance object](https://docs.stripe.com/api/customers/object.md#customer_object-cash_balance) with one or more currencies in the `available` object. You can use the funds to [make payments](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/customer-balance.md#make-cash-payment) or pay invoices. Customers with available balances have the following behavior:

- You can’t create a negative customer cash balance since it represents money sent from the `Customer`.

- You can’t finalize a too-small or too-large invoice with the cash balance (for example, creating a subscription for 0.01 USD). Learn more about [minimum and maximum amounts](https://docs.stripe.com/currencies.md#minimum-and-maximum-charge-amounts).

- You can delete `Customers` that have a cash balance, but only if their cash balance is 0.

- You can’t remove a `Customer`’s available balance.
 

## See also

- [Stripe data](https://docs.stripe.com/stripe-data.md)