Loan Principal Payments Not Showing In Register

PeterKirk

I set up a bank loan in Quicken last December. It is NOT downloading and updating automatically (my deliberate choice, as recommended in this forum). I am entering monthly payments from my reminders. Each monthly payment is split between Loan Payment:Principal and Loan Payment:Interest, with the same split each month (which is not correct). But the loan principal payment is not being deducted from the loan balance, which is still shown as the original loan amount. A balloon amount is now shown for the end date (December 2025) which is more than ten monthly payments. I can see the loan register under Payment Details, but only the opening transactions are shown there. How can I fix this situation?

UKR

It appears that your loan account is/was set up for downloading because the scheduled reminder is categorizing the principal payment as Loan Payment:Principal. That's because an online-connected loan account does not have a register to send payment to. It relies on whatever information the mortgage company or bank downloads into your loan account.

You should be able to deactivate an online-connected loan account and regain full control over your transaction register.  Afterwards you also need to review the Scheduled Reminder (or Memorized Payee List entry) associated with the monthly loan payments to ensure they now transfer Principal to the loan account register and not to a Category.

And older payments need to be changed to also transfer principal to the loan account and not the category.
While making changes: In the Split definitions, both line #1 and line #3 need to point to the loan account register. Line #1 is for the regular monthly principal amount, #3 is for making additional principal payments together with the regular payment (or $0.00). Line #4 is for payment transfers into your Escrow account (or $0.00).

PeterKirk

Thank you. Possibly I set it up initially as online connected then disconnected it. Or maybe Quicken failed to set up the connection to the bank (not a major one) and so disconnected it. OK, I will go and change the old transactions. That's more difficult because the loan doesn't appear in the dropdown list of categories, but it seems I can type it in.

UKR

> That's more difficult because the loan doesn't appear in the dropdown list of categories, but it seems I can type it in.

Really? The loan account register name, when used as a transfer category, should be enclosed in [square brackets], e.g., [WF Mortgage 2012]
So, just start typing a "[" followed by the first few characters of the register name, then select from the popup menu

PeterKirk

Really. I tried that. It finds every other account with the first three letters of the loan name, but not the loan itself. But that's now a small issue. My other loan which is properly connected is also not in the drop down list.

UKR

Check Tools / Manage Hidden Accounts. If the loan accounts have any "hide ..." options enabled, turn them off

PeterKirk

Thank you. Yes, that's it. The loan in question was checked "Hide in Transaction Entry Lists" but I was able to uncheck it. The loan which actually is connected is also checked and can't be unchecked.

UKR

PeterKirk said:

... The loan which actually is connected is also checked and can't be unchecked.

You need to deactivate it first, after which it'll be unchecked and have a register to work with.

PeterKirk

Yes, I understand. I will leave that loan connected as the connection seems to be working.