Advice entering "Pay with Points" Credits to Credit Card accounts

TRod

Hi! i have a question about logging a simple transaction. My credit card offers "pay with points" (similar to cashback or a refund/credit)--they show up on my credit card statements as a credit. When I download credit card transactions to Quicken, these credits result in a negative balance that throws off my reconciliation. I have tried deleting them, but that *doubles* the problem. Similarly, I've tried change them from positive to negative amounts, but that, too, makes the balance worse. It seems the only way to deal with balancing them is to enter a transaction that is "Balance Pay with Points" transactions (assigning them to the "Adjustment" category). Is this the best way to deal with this? It must come up with every credit card. (PS--This is for my home budgeting, where I don't use this for specific accounting or taxes, just home budgeting...I realize there might be issues on how to account for these amounts in proper accounting, but I'm not asking that...) Thanks!

John_in_NC

Hi, TRod:

You haven't provided some pertinent details such as how these "pay with point" credits really work. Are they a credits to individual transactions? (You mention "Credits" in plural, so I can only suspect they are.) Some examples of what is really happening here would help.

Whenever I have credits (such as a gift card or similar), yet I want to track the total amount to a category so they hit my budget correctly, I split the transaction with a positive amount for the credit, and the total amount going to categories. Thus, the total amount of the transactions is what finally clears the bank. For example, here is for a refund gift card I got the other day:



You can use whatever category you want that represents the credit.

Let us know if this is/not is how your CC is handling things.