credit card transactions are recorded wrong

stsmith

Credit card transactions enter as charges, but the balance keeps reducing rather increasing as a result the balance keeps getting smaller till now where the balance is in the negative range

UKR

Please review the latest comments on this discussion:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20108961#Comment_20108961

It might help you solve your issue.

volvogirl

First make sure you are sorted in Date order with the newest date at the bottom. If you are not then click the DATE Column heading to sort. 

Sounds like you're running a credit balance. Is the balance in red or black? Look back through your transactions and maybe you'll spot one that was entered backward. Or a payment in the charge column or a charge in the payment column. Look around back where this first started happening.  Or maybe you are missing some charges? 

If the balance is in Black, it means you have a credit on the card.  Like if you overpaid the bill or got a refund for something you returned.   When you enter a charge it will reduce (decrease) the credit you have available on it.   And a payment will increase the balance.

Also make sure you have the right starting balance.  If it's zero you might need to add a beginning balance for when you started the account in Quicken.

 The credit card balance you OWE should be in RED. If the balance is Black then it's showing the credit card company owes you and you have a credit balance. And then when you make a payment it's like the cc owes you more. So you need to go back though your entries and find where the balance switched to black to being in your favor.

See this for more info.....

https://www.quicken.com/support/positive-black-balance-credit-card-

stsmith

There is no credit balance on the card. The initial balances began decreasing with the 2020 upgrade. Every new charge decreases the balance by the amount of the charge. Then when the balance goes below 0 the charges start increasing the negative balance (basic arithmetic). While I do not rely on the Quicken balances to manage my credit card accounts, this still annoying. I would like to fix it.

steve

UKR

Do make sure that your account register is sorted properly by Date, as suggested previously. This will show your transactions in chronological order, charges and payments as they occur. The running balance should be equal to the Online Balance or the balance on your credit card website.

stsmith

the charges are sorted by date. As I stated previously, the charges decrease teh balance which should not happen with a credit card unless you have overpaid. I show no overpayments and the cresit card does not show and overpayments.THis has been happening all year and last year.

UKR

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words …
Can you please capture one or more images of the parts of your Quicken window(*) showing the issue, sensitive information blacked out as necessary to protect your privacy but annotated to describe the situation, and attach the image(s) here?
https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7867159/faq-how-do-i-post-a-screenshot-in-the-community-from-windows

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7663259/faq-how-do-i-post-a-screenshot-in-the-community-from-a-mac

Please save images to files of file type PNG, JPG, or GIF only. They're easier to work with than PDF files.

(*) I'd like to see a view of your credit card register including the three Filter fields on top and the column headers. The transactions shown should include a few of the most recent charges and at least one credit card payment transaction.

stsmith

headings and charges

Sherlock

stsmith said:

headings and charges

Appears correct.  Charges subtract from the balance and payments add to the balance.

stsmith

you are looking at a credit balance acting this way. It would be correct if there was an actual credit balance. THere is no balance and this balance is going to infinity.

UKR

Assuming that the 3 Filter fields at the top of the register (you didn't show them) are set to "All Dates, Any Type, All Transactions" ... the running Balance in a filtered register may be misleading because it's not showing all transactions ...

Furthermore assuming that the Opening Balance transaction in the register is correct ...

When's the last time you reconciled this credit card register?

I recommend you reconcile against the paper statements, in chronological order, to locate any discrepancies, e.g., missing payment transactions, duplicate charges, etc.

Sherlock

stsmith said:

you are looking at a credit balance acting this way. It would be correct if there was an actual credit balance. THere is no balance and this balance is going to infinity.

I am looking at the information you provided which begins with a large negative running balance and ends with a lesser but still large negative running balance.  The transactions you have provided appear to be entered correctly.

volvogirl

Your register is acting right.  The red negative balance is increasing when you enter a charge.  What is wrong?  You owe more.  You owe $256,000 on your credit card?  

stsmith

Every month, I clear the outstanding balance at AMEX. THerefore I have a zero balance. Even it this shows 256K with the monthly payments the balance should not change. THis has been going on since 2010. when the balance was positive

Rocket J Squirrel

Do you reconcile your credit card in Quicken? I have a feeling you don't, seeing "c"s where we ought to see "R"s. As @UKR suggested, reconciling might help find the problem.

volvogirl

So looking at your screen shots more and you say you pay it off each month?  Seems like there must be a even $250,000 transaction or beginning balance lurking around in there.  Since your payment of $6,186 would pretty much pay it off if it wasn't for 250,000 sitting in there.

Sort the register by an amount column and try to find it or some wrong amounts.  Maybe they are transfers that should go to another account.  

Sherlock

stsmith said:

Every month, I clear the outstanding balance at AMEX. THerefore I have a zero balance. Even it this shows 256K with the monthly payments the balance should not change. THis has been going on since 2010. when the balance was positive

There are many ways you may have inadvertently impacted the earlier running balance but the transactions you have presented are being handled correctly.  For example, perhaps you deleted an account register previously used to pay the credit card account.

Tom Young

Assuming you don't really owe a quarter of a million dollars, you've got one or more erroneous entries in your credit card register.

stsmith

Tom, You are incorrect. The payments have reduced my credit (red chous a balance in my favor) the charges have increased my credit (again trd is in my favor). The usual presentation would be black it the balance you owe and red is a credit balance. There are no abnormal payments or credit going back to 2009 when I first started using Quicken. THis a the version for rentals and business, is there a possibility that this account was structured as if I was on the receiving side of the charges, THen THis might make sense, however since each month all charges are paid up the balance should not ever change,.

volvogirl

No.  For credit card accounts the color is opposite.  Black means you overpaid and they owe you.  Red means you owe.   Read all the posts.  You are missing some prior payments.  The may have got deleted or the account you paid them from got deleted or changed.

Again.......The credit card balance you OWE should be in RED. If the balance is Black then it's showing the credit card company owes you and you have a credit balance. And then when you make a payment it's like the cc owes you more. So you need to go back though your entries and find where the balance switched to black to being in your favor.

See this for more info.....

https://www.quicken.com/support/positive-black-balance-credit-card-

stsmith

OK, if I am wrong, consider the following;
-AMEX payment is full every month, no arrears
-Balance is in red (negative) and increases each month starting since 2009.
current balance is 0ver 250K. I'm sure that if this is correct, someone from AMEX would be banging on my door.
- this has increased from 2009 in relatively small increments every month not related to any charges or payments.

volvogirl

Yes, that's what you need to track down.  Find a date where the balance was right.  Then check for missing payments and transactions.  Or an amount entered wrong like maybe missing a decimal point.  We've posted some things to check for.

stsmith

the errors would have to be every month. THe balance keeps getting smaller over the past 150 months. THe balance was never correct. The amounts are downloads from BB&T.

where are the the things to check posted.

Tom Young

@stsmith

"OK, if I am wrong..."

You are wrong.  Here's a snippet of one of my credit cards and you can see it works exactly as we've all been telling you it works:

"-Balance is in red (negative) and increases each month starting since 2009."

Your pictures don't show that, they show what looks like normal behavior of charges increasing the balance owed and payments decreasing the balance owed.  If the balance owed (and that's what your pictures are showing, amounts owed) really is increasing every month then it sounds like some sort of "charge" duplication is going on.  If you've lived with this since 2009 then I'd suggest hiding this Account in Quicken and creating a new credit card Account, reconciling the Account each and every month.

NotACPA

"In the RED", in any Quicken account means that you owe someone money.

If it's a credit card account, you owe the card company.

If it's a checking or savings type account, the Balance will also be red ...  and you're overdrawn.

In a credit card account, the Balance is almost always Red (see @Tom Young's latest graphic.  If the balance is $0 or overpaid, the balance will be Black (you don't owe).

In a banking account, the balance is almost always BLACK.  If it goes RED, you've overdrawn your account.