Question

Sams credit card balance is less than -$36. Does Sam owe more or less than $36

Answer 1

He owes more.

He has LESS than -36. So he getting further from zero.

So he could have -40 or something because that's less money than -36.

So because the negative number is bigger than 36, he will owe more than 36.

Answer 2

If his credit card balance is in the negative then he is OWED that amount by the credit card company in order to make his balance Zero.
If he owed that money to the credit card it would be a positive number. Your balance is what you owe to pay it to zero.