Categorize Credit Card Payment

genie72

Hi,

I don't separately track my credit card payments (they are automatically recorded as transfers by Quicken) as I categorize all the transactions on the credit cards. However, I have a particular 0% credit card on which I am carrying a balance. My plan is to pay 5% of the outstanding balance every month. I want to track this in my budget. How do I categorize this payment in the most effective way. Remember - this payment is not for any of the already categorized monthly expenses, rather to reduce a carry-on balance from the past.

TIA. Appreciate ideas.

bmciance

The payment is still a transfer and doesn't get categorized. That said, to include this payment in your budget you can select the credit card account when you select Budget categories. On the Planning screen click on Manaage Budget Categories, then select Transfers Out and pick "TO:[your credit card account]". This will add a line to your budget for transfers to this credit card which you can set to the budget amount you want. Note that it will probably show up below your expenses on the budget screen.

bmciance

The payment is still a transfer and doesn't get categorized. That said, to include this payment in your budget you can select the credit card account when you select Budget categories. On the Planning screen click on Manaage Budget Categories, then select Transfers Out and pick "TO:[your credit card account]". This will add a line to your budget for transfers to this credit card which you can set to the budget amount you want. Note that it will probably show up below your expenses on the budget screen.

genie72

Thanks a lot. That helps.

Jim_Harman

You can track the transfers to the credit card account in your budget by going to the main Budgets page. Click on Manage Budget Categories and select the credit card account in the Transfers out section. The problem is that if you also select the credit card account under Budget actions > Select accounts so that the budget will include your spending in that account, your total expenses will be wrong.

I don't know of any way around this; you must choose between tracking the actual expenses or tracking the payments. However you could set up a separate budget that excludes the credit card account and includes the transfer and switch between them depending on what you want to see.