How do I set up mortgage payments in Quicken when I do 2 equal amounts a month?

Bobbrant

I pay 2 equal amounts per month on my mortgage. How do I set this up in Quicken to reflect my P&I paid and the reduction of principle?

Boatnmaniac

Hi, @Bobbrant .  Do you have the mortgage already set up in Quicken and are looking to change the payment terms of it?  If so, from the Mortgage Account screen, click on Edit Terms and then change the Payment Schedule to Twice Per Month.

If you want to create a new mortgage in Quicken:  Since you want to see all your payments information, I suggest you set up a manual mortgage account instead of setting up an online mortgage account: Tools > Add Account > Offline Account > Loan > Enter the name of your account (i.e., "Mortgage") > Select "Mortgage" as the type of Loan > enter the loan terms being sure to select "Twice Per Month" for the Payment Schedule > follow the prompts through the rest of the process, making sure that you let Quicken set up the Bill Reminder for you.

When the account is set up you will have a recurring Bill Reminder for the mortgage that will be set up for the Principal and Interest split categories.  You can tell Quicken you want the Bill Reminder to be automatically entered into your checking account register per the number of days you specify or you can do that manually.  Then when your payment transaction is downloaded from your bank into your checking account register, Quicken will match it to the previously entered Bill Reminder.

Also, in the Mortgage Account screen, if you click on Payment Details you will see the mortgage register.  Also in this view you can click on View Payment Schedule which will bring up the payments and amortization schedule.

I hope this helps.  Let me know if you have any questions.

David Lewin

Very helpful, thank you. I'm wondering how to record mortgage ReFi transactions manually. Particularly, applying the new ReFi to pay off existing mortgage. I'm paying bi-monthly commencing 01/01/21. However, I'm paying two payments on Dec 4 and Dec 11 towards capital. Seems quicken won't allow me to record transactions before 01/01/21.

Boatnmaniac

As I understand it, you want to accomplish 2 things:

1. Use the ReFi to pay off your original mortgage.
2. Make 2 principal payment transactions (12/4 and 12/11) prior to the planned payments schedule kicks in on 1/1/2021.

Please correct me if I am misunderstanding this.

Regarding paying off the original mortgage with the ReFi:  The following assumes your original mortgage is also an account in Quicken.

1. If 100% of the Refi mortgage proceeds goes toward paying off the original mortgage:  Go to the ReFi mortgage account register and edit the Opening Balance transaction by clicking on the drop-down button on the right side of the category field > Transfers > name of original mortgage account (it will be in brackets) > Save.  The proceeds from the Refi mortgage will now be applied as a payment to the original mortgage.  Ideally, the balance of your original mortgage should now be $0 but it will probably be a little off from that so you will need to enter a balance adjustment transaction (upper right Gear icon > Update Balance).
2. If some of the Refi mortgage proceeds goes toward paying off the original mortgage and some of the proceeds are for Refi closing costs:  The same process as in #1 except when editing the Opening Balance transaction split the category.  On the first line of the category split, enter the transfer to the original mortgage account.  Skip the 2nd line in the split or it will show up as interest paid in the original mortgage register.  In the 3rd line, enter the closing costs amount and a category for the closing costs (you might need to create a custom category for this...maybe Loans:Closing Costs...just type it in the category field and when Quicken asks if you want to create the new category approve it).

Regarding the 2 principal payments in Dec for the ReFi:  I'm assuming your ReFi mortgage has an opening date in Quicken earlier than the two payments you want to make.  If it is not earlier than the two payments you want to make you will not be able to enter them.

Assuming your ReFi opening date is earlier than 12/4, I suggest you enter manual transactions in your checking account dated 12/4 and 12/11 for the amounts of your payments.  In the category field, select Transfers and your ReFi mortgage account name (in brackets).  Save the transactions and the payments will show up in your ReFi transaction register.  Click on the View payments schedule button and it should show that 100% of the payments were applied to Principal with nothing applied to Interest.  When the payments clear your checking account and get downloaded they should be matched to the manual payment transactions you entered.

Let me know if this helps or if you have any questions.