Estimated Bill Payments:Projected Balances - Variable account balances (Credit Card)

DJW

After the Quicken upgrade I tried the 'Time of Year' and 'Last 3 payments' for use in the Projected Balances page. Neither of these make sense to me for a variable balance such as a credit card.
I typically pay these accounts in full each month, having the full account amount for the due date reflected in the Projected Balances reflects this behavior.

I tried to go back to having the full account balance being reflected in the Projected Balances for the next estimated payment .
I cannot find a way to do so. Is there a way to have the Account Balance used in the next scheduled payment?

Ideally the algorithm would be a hybrid.
The first 'UnEntered' payment would be the calculated Credit Card balance on that date.
All Estimated payments after that would be one of the current methods (Fixed, Time of Year, Estimated over (x) past payments.

Rich_M

@DJW Another reason you may not be seeing the option you're looking for has to do with the way you setup the Bill Reminder.  The category field must specify the name of the Quicken credit card account, so that this payment is treated as a transfer.

Rich_M

It sounds like you have this reminder setup as a linked biller, if so, current credit card balance is not available because Quicken will retrieve the amount due automatically from the biller's website, when the next statement arrives.

DJW

Rich_M,
Thanks for the timely response!

I do not use the linked account feature. I do have my transactions downloaded daily into Quicken.
The resultant balance from these transactions is what I would like in the next Scheduled payment in the Projected Balance page.

This was the default behavior (since the 80’s) prior to my experimenting with the ‘Time of year’ and ‘Estimate from last x’.

I just tried to turn off 'Estimate Amount' in the 'Edit Bill Reminder' screen, hoping that that would default to the balance.
There is no option to turn off 'Estimate amount for me'

I am on Build 27.1.29.12

Rich_M

@DJW There is an option to use the full credit card balance, I use this myself, you're not seeing that?

It's one of the estimated amount choices. 

DJW

I do not see Full Credit Card Balance. Am I in the correct place?
( Drop down disappears when I try to capture. Only three entries. See attached Image)
'Fixed Amount'
'Previous Payments'
'Time of Year'

Rich_M

@DJW Yes, you're in the right place.  Check your Account Details and look at the General tab for the Account Type, it must be Credit in order to see the option want.

Chris_QPW

DJW said:

I do not see Full Credit Card Balance. Am I in the correct place?
( Drop down disappears when I try to capture. Only three entries. See attached Image)
'Fixed Amount'
'Previous Payments'
'Time of Year'

Please note that in fact this option is far from perfect, at least for the way I pay my credit card bills.

You will notice that it is the "Current" credit card balance.  It isn't "full payment".
With a credit card you will get a statement say on the 12th and then you will need to pay it in about 20 or 30 days.  I have my credit card bills set to be paid automatically on the the due date.  That means from the statement day till it is actually paid the credit card balance keeps going up even though in fact the payment isn't.  So by the time the reminder is recorded in the register just before the payment comes in, it is quite a bit higher than it will really be.  Which of course throws off the projected balance.  I take care of this problem by changing the next instance of the reminder to the statement value with the statement comes in.

But there is even one more quirk and that is that any returns in this period from the statement to the payment will reduce the payment amount.  For this I just wait and correct that amount when the payment actually happens since it can change right up until the payment date.

DJW

@Rick_M I did check that. See attached

Rich_M

@DJW Another reason you may not be seeing the option you're looking for has to do with the way you setup the Bill Reminder.  The category field must specify the name of the Quicken credit card account, so that this payment is treated as a transfer.

Chris_QPW

Note that if you are linked to an Online Bill there are two options for setting the amount of the next reminder.  The min or the full amount.  The downside of using linked bills are that the estimates are all removed and that means that you can't specify any estimate, and it uses either the last bill (which may be completely wrong) or zero!  The zero comes in sometimes when it can't get a bill and is in the "Awaiting Bill" state.

And then of course all the problems that might come up with linking to a bill.

Rich_M

@DJW You need to look at the Account Type on the General tab to see if it says Credit.  Also read my last comment about the correct way to setup the Bill Reminder, this is another reason you won't see that option.

Rich_M

@Chris_QPW Your last comment about linked bills is the reason I abandoned this feature shortly after it was introduced.

DJW

> @Rich_M said:
> @DJW Another reason you may not be seeing the option you're looking for has to do with the way you setup the Bill Reminder.  The category field must specify the name of the Quicken credit card account, so that this payment is treated as a transfer.

Bingo!
The Category field was blank (on the Checking Account Reminder), even though the action was a transfer from 'Checking' to the Credit card Account.

I now see the 'Current Credit card Balance' in the Estimate Drop Down on the checking account.
Thanks!

pt216

October 13, 2020Chase Bank returns a CC-505/105 error

Chris_QPW

@pt216 You are having a different problem then what is being discussed in this thread, I suggest you start your own one.  But I also suggest that you change you Chase connection from Express Web Connect to Direct Connect which is free for non business accounts.  It is much more reliable.  Also note that you have to enable this at the Chase site. Search for Quicken there for details.