What happened to my records

David Bushlow

I've been using Quicken for decades, before it went Intuit and back. My issue is with all of my back records. Quicken was designed to replace paper banking records and used to do a good job. This morning I look for a credit payment of $500-$600 USD made about 3 years ago, and I can't find it. How do I prove to the court that bill was paid? I know I paid it because I still have the merchandise I bought. Do I have to pay again, plus court costs, plus penalties, plus fines?

jacobs

@David Bushlow First, no one here can tell you what happened to specific records in your data file, and certainly can't advise on how to deal with a court saying you didn't pay a bill.

If you're looking for proof of payment to demonstrate to a court, even if you find a record of a payment in Quicken, that won't prove anything -- so I'd actually start outside of Quicken. Do you keep printed copies of your credit card statements? That would be tangible proof of payment you might be able to show. If you don't have printed statements on file, I'd turn to your credit card company. How far back do they let you access your statements online? (For many credit card companies, it's three years, but some are less.) If it's not available to you online, then I'd contact the credit card company's customer service to ask how you can obtain old statements; there might be a fee for them to retrieve them, but a small fee is surely better than having the unpaid bill on your court record. I think only the credit card documentation would be actual proof of a payment.

In terms of Quicken, there are lots of avenues to explore, and many questions... What version of Quicken Mac were you using around the time of the payment: modern Quicken Mac (e.g. Quicken 2016 or 2017), old Quicken Mac (2007 or Essentials), or Quicken Windows? And what version are you using now? 

Are there other transactions from around the same time in the same credit card account where you feel this transaction is missing, or are you missing a large period of time, or missing the account entirely? From your description, it's hard to tell what the problem is. A missing account could be simply a hidden account. If you have, or had, multiple credit card accounts, are you sure you're looking int he right one, or looking across all of them?

Do you keep any backups of your Quicken and/or your computer? If so, I'd look for ones from 2-3 years ago, make a copy of them, and open them to see if the missing transaction is there. 

I'll stop there for now. There are many directions this could go, and we'd need more information to figure out what direction to pursue.