Credit card "Balance" not being reduced by a payment.

Bob@53

Can't figure out why the postings of the most recent three payments in a credit card register INCREASED the "Balance" column in the register instead of decreasing the balance. See Screen shot. Tried deleting one of the errant payments and re-creating it. Didn't help. Any ideas on what causes it or how to manually correct the registry?

volvogirl

That's ok.  Because you paid more than the balance due.  So you have a credit balance.  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.

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. 

See this for more info.....

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

Bob@53

Thanks for your quick response, but you don't understand. Please review my question and the attached screen shot. The problem is that the most recent three payments did NOT reduce the balance. Rather they increased the balance. Why? (Unlike the payment before the last three which properly reduced the balance.) As another curiosity, this glitch only impacts this particular credit card registry and only the last three payments. All other credit cards record payments properly, ie they REDUCE the balance.

UKR

The math is correct in your account register.
You owed $8100 in March, according to your register's red balance.
In March you paid $8800.
That means, you paid more than you owe and the balance is shown correctly in black.

Payments in the next two months again paid more than you owed, thus correctly adding to the black balance.

Now, the question is: Why did you overpay in the first place? Are there transactions missing in your Quicken account register? Are there incorrect transactions in your register that do not match the transactions shown on your monthly statements? Did something change the register's Opening Balance transaction?

I recommend you reconcile your account register, i.e., compare all the transactions in your register with the monthly statements and resolve all discrepancies. That should get you back to "normal", with the register matching the credit card statement balance.

volvogirl

I understood perfectly.  You have a BLACK balance, not Red.  The payments are increasing the black balance.  It's showing you overpaid the account.  Read my post again slowly.  

Are you missing some charges?  You started out owing 8,100 in Red but you paid 8,800 so you had a 700 CREDIT balance in Black.  Then you made a 583 payment.  Why?  Now you have a Credit of 1285 in Black.  A Credit balance is to your good, you overpaid and now the bank owes you.  Then charges will decrease the credit you overpaid.  Watch the color of the balance column.  

volvogirl

Oh and that first payment did NOT decrease the balance.  It turned the Red 8,100 into a Black 700.  -8,100 into a +700.  

Another way to say it.......The 8,800 payment first wiped out the 8,100 balance to zero then added a 700 overpayment.  Which is used to cover future charges.  So any more payments will increase the overpayment balance (in Black).  

Bob@53

I'm an idiot. Didn't notice the March payment put the "balance" into the black which meant subsequent payments contained to do more of the same. I don't ever pay more than due -- all payments each month are for the pay-in-full balance due from the statement. As I recall now, there was some download glitches back in March which created a bunch of duplicate entries which I had to manually clean up. (PITA, if you know what I mean!) Some debit item probably was accidentally deleted in that clean up process, thus understating the card's balance. So, you are correct, I'll need to review those Feb./March statements for some debit item missing from my registry and enter it back in.
Thanks for help. Sorry I was so obtuse. Not noticing that that Mar. payment put the ledger balance into the black was a dumb oversight. Cheers.