Why are credit card payments in one account also being recorded as a charge on a different card?

Science
Science Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

I have been using Quicken windows for a month or two. I have struggled with it accurately downloading my transactions; for instance, I just updated my accounts today, and while the online balance I see in my Quicken account matches the actual account balance, the ending balance was different. I compared items, and there were a few items that had not been downloaded during the update, although they were well over a week old.

Additionally, I adjusted transactions on a credit card account, as payments were erroneously categorized as charges, making my balance inaccurate. When I changed them from charges to payments, they were for some reason charged to a different credit card account making that balance inaccurate, although when I went into that account to try to rectify the situation, I do not see them anywhere. However, the amount of difference between the actual balance and what Quicken says it is was equal to amount of the erroneous charges that I adjusted to be categorized as payments. I do not understand what is going on with this program and why it can't accurately download and categorize my transactions. I contacted someone via phone regarding this previously, and they did not understand what I was trying to tell them, despite them logging in to view my screen.

Best Answer

  • mshiggins
    mshiggins Quicken Windows 2017 SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓

    First problem - unrelated transactions being incorrectly identified as a transfer transaction. There is a preference for transfer detection. Either disable the preference or set it to ask you to confirm possible transfers.

    Second problem - Venmo account with negative balance. Maybe an issue with opening balance transaction or random transaction deletions. Both issues have been reported many times here. Two contributing factors are syncing to the Quicken cloud and resetting or deactivating/reactivating transaction downloading.


    Third problem - repeating amount transactions failing to download. There is an ongoing discussion about this fairly recent issue here:

    Fourth point - can confirm, manually entering transactions in QW2017 is far better than fighting the problems with transaction downloading in the current versions.

    Quicken user since Q1999. Currently using QW2017.
    Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list

Answers

  • splasher
    splasher Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Check your categories in the transactions. There are two types, transfers and regular categories.

    Transfers cause a move of funds between accounts like when your write a check to make a credit card payment. The category will be the other account's name in square brackets, i.e. [checking] or [visa].

    The regular categories are like Groceries, Fuel, Rent, Clothing.

    So, it sounds like your category is incorrect, either pointing to the wrong account or it shouldn't have been a transfer type category.

    -splasher using Q continuously since 1996
    - Subscription Quicken - Win11 and QW2013 - Win11
    -Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list

  • Science
    Science Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    I noticed that when they were initially in the first register, they were listed as transfers from the other account. It was when I changed them to be "credit card payment" that the balance in the other account started changing.

    I've used Quicken in one version or another for over 20 years, and I have never run into issues like the ones I've been having with the current service. My last product was Quicken 2017.

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    Is "credit card payment" a category? Or what?

    Because the usual method is to record the payment as a transfer from your checking account to the card account.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • splasher
    splasher Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    The reason that changing the category from a transfer to a regular category automatically deleted its mate in the other account.

    That is the concept of a transfer, you create a transfer in one account and Quicken automatically generates a mating transaction in the other account.

    You really want to use transfers when moving money from one account to another as in paying a credit card bill from checking.

    -splasher using Q continuously since 1996
    - Subscription Quicken - Win11 and QW2013 - Win11
    -Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list

  • Science
    Science Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    The issue I have is that I never entered them as a transfer from one account to another. These were transactions that downloaded when I set up quicken, and the program categorized them this way. Like I just started using this version of quicken in the past month. The transactions I'm talking about were from september through january. I know how to use quicken; I've been using it since at least 2004. This is not something I'm DOING or entering wrong, I promise. It is entirely quicken downloading information and then f****** it up. Another example: I logged in one day, updated, and realized that my venmo account had a balance of negative 17k dollars. I have NO idea why or where it came up with that information, because I not only don't have a negative balance in venmo, I don't think i've moved 17k through it in the 5 years I've been using it. So I guess my root question is: why is this version of Quicken such a piece of trash?

  • Science
    Science Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    Yeah, I get how to use Quicken to record transactions. This was not me paying from one account to another. There's zero reason these two accounts should even have transactions from one to the other. They are both credit cards, neither of which are being used to pay the other one off. The money for the transactions came from my checking account, but the way it was categorized in quicken as part of the automatic update/download, was as a transfer from one credit card to another. NOT what I'm doing with my money, and I have zero explanation as to why quicken is categorizing things the way it is. I have my calender and items set up, I have been using quicken since 2004, just new to the online subscription service.

    I honestly would almost prefer my quicken 2017 that no longer had connectivity and I entered everything by hand, because then I'm not fighting with a computer program that thinks it's smarter than I am.

  • Science
    Science Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    Okay, here's another example. I just updated my accounts. The online balance in my checking account is correct and matches what is currently in my account. The ending balance however, has a discrepency that I can only assume, based on the amount, is quicken for some reason not recognizing (or recognizing twice??) my weekly payroll and a transfer to my kids' savings accounts. The ending balance is more than the online (correct) balance by that amount. Looking at the register, everything is listed and matches the transactions in my account. I had to manually enter both the transfers to my kids' accounts and my payroll deposit, and there are no downloaded transactions that I can match them to. I've made a new category called "Quicken Sucks" so I can categorize these random adjustments to my balance that I have to make just to make the numbers line up.

  • mshiggins
    mshiggins Quicken Windows 2017 SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭
    Answer ✓

    First problem - unrelated transactions being incorrectly identified as a transfer transaction. There is a preference for transfer detection. Either disable the preference or set it to ask you to confirm possible transfers.

    Second problem - Venmo account with negative balance. Maybe an issue with opening balance transaction or random transaction deletions. Both issues have been reported many times here. Two contributing factors are syncing to the Quicken cloud and resetting or deactivating/reactivating transaction downloading.


    Third problem - repeating amount transactions failing to download. There is an ongoing discussion about this fairly recent issue here:

    Fourth point - can confirm, manually entering transactions in QW2017 is far better than fighting the problems with transaction downloading in the current versions.

    Quicken user since Q1999. Currently using QW2017.
    Questions? Check out the Quicken Windows FAQ list

  • NotACPA
    NotACPA Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Science The downloaded transaction from one credit card has no way of knowing about the other credit card.

    Have you got a memorized txn with this screwy card-to-card transfer … because that's not something that Q, by itself, can do.

    Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
    Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
    Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP

  • Boatnmaniac
    Boatnmaniac Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    My thought was along the same line as @NotACPA's. Open the Memorized Payees List and look for the Payee(s) of the transactions that are getting miscategorized as transfers to the other account. Then look at the categories that are listed for that Payee(s). If you see any that are transfers to the wrong account, then that could very likely be what is causing the transfer transactions to be entered into the other account(s). Delete that Memorized Payee listing to stop Quicken from using it.

    I would also check to make sure that the Preference to automatically add downloaded transactions into the account registers is not selected. This will allow you to review and edit transactions before entering them so if there are any category/transfer issues they can be resolved proactively.

    I would also consider making sure that the Preference for downloaded transactions to be automatically categorized is not selected.

    Regarding transactions failing to download: Yes, there have been some posts this month that some transactions not getting downloaded into Quicken. It's happened with to me 8 times with 5 different accounts between Feb 2 and Feb 22. It has not happened frequently and it is usually just 1 transaction at a time that gets missed. In my case it has happened randomly with the only pattern observed that it happens only with EWC and EWC+ connected accounts. It has happened with me while running R53.32 and after updating to R54.16 so I don't think this is a version update issue. I don't usually realize the issue has occurred until 2-5 days after the fact when I still cannot get the accounts in question to reconcile to the online balance and have determined that it is not because of a transaction posting/online balance update timing issue.

    Quicken Classic Premier (US) Subscription: R60.15 on Windows 11 Home

  • Science
    Science Quicken Windows Subscription Member ✭✭

    Thank you! That might actually be helpful. My next plan of attack is canceling my account and just going back to Quicken 2017.

  • Boatnmaniac
    Boatnmaniac Quicken Windows Subscription SuperUser ✭✭✭✭✭

    You should be aware that if this means you will be reinstalling Quicken 2017 it very likely will not initiate so it will not be usable. Sometime in the last 1-2 years Quicken made a security change for the software that is not compatible with QWin 2014-2017. Even though QWin 2017 no longer supports any online services the Quicken ID Cloud Account is still active and occasionally communicates with Quicken.com to verify that software has a valid license and is legitimate. Unfortunately, when that contact is made, the Quicken.ini file is updated to include this new security requirement. Since it is not compatible with Quicken 2017 what ends up happening is that Quicken starts to launch and then returns a white screen. Since Quicken Inc no longer supports Quicken 2014-2017 they will not resolve this issue for users of those versions of the software.

    There are a couple a methods that MIGHT be able to get around this compatibility issue but they are hit-or-miss as to whether the will work. You can read more about it at:

    Quicken Classic Premier (US) Subscription: R60.15 on Windows 11 Home

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