Meaning & use
charge account
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
An arrangement with a store that lets you take goods now and pay for them later.
Grammar: Countable: you can open one, have two, or close it.
Patterns
- open a charge account
- have a charge account with a store
- put something on a charge account
- pay off a charge account
She opened a charge account at the department store before the holidays.
We put the new washing machine on our charge account and paid it off over three months.
The store will only give you a charge account if your credit record is clean.
nouncountable
The record or bill that shows what you have bought this way and still owe.
Grammar: Often used with on: buy something on a charge account.
Patterns
- on a charge account
- a charge account balance
- check your charge account
He bought the coat on a charge account and settled the bill at the end of the month.
Please check your charge account before you buy anything else.
Word forms
| plural | charge accounts |
|---|
Common combinations
- open a charge account
- You can open a charge account in about ten minutes at the service desk.
- on a charge account
- They bought all their furniture on a charge account.
- pay off a charge account
- He worked extra shifts to pay off his charge account.
- a charge account balance
- The charge account balance was higher than she expected.
- close a charge account
- I closed my charge account after the interest went up.
Synonyms and how they differ
- credit account
- The usual British term for the same idea; in the US a credit account can also mean a bank credit line.
- store card
- A physical card tied to one shop; a charge account is the arrangement itself, which may or may not come with a card.
- line of credit
- More general and formal: money a bank or shop agrees to lend you, not only for purchases.
Word family
Commonly confused: charge account or charge card? charge account or checking account?
charge account vs charge card
A charge card is the plastic card itself and must usually be paid off monthly; a charge account is the agreement with the store.
charge account vs checking account
A checking account is a bank account for everyday payments, not a store credit arrangement.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'charge account' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Charge account' is a countable noun, so it needs 'a' before it and 'at' before the shop. Option 2 is missing the preposition, option 3 is missing the article, and option 4 wrongly uses a plural after 'a'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “charge account”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.