Can I merge a credit card ACCOUNT so the payments show in CATEGORY as well as a transfer?

Question

I JUST started my Quicken account. Currently, I am unable to express connect my accounts due to an issue with Quicken, but that is a separate issue. After adding my credit card accounts that I CAN enter until the issue is resolved, I notice that payments transfer into the account and do not show on my expenses monthly. I am trying to track as categories how much I spend on debt overall. Let's say I have a Visa card through Chase. I have it listed as an account. I also have a category for paying my Chase Visa bill. Can I merge the chase transfer account into the chase visa category and everything work as I am trying to get it to do? Thanks in advance!

NotACPA · Accepted Answer

The expenses AREN'T the payments to the card account (which you DO have set up  in Q, right?).  The expenses are what you purchased with the card.

If the payments were also "expenses" then you'd be doubling up your expenses.

You might want to look at Q's "Cash Flow" reports to see the money moving thru your bank  account.

volvogirl · Accepted Answer

You should not use a category to pay the Chase Visa bill.   The payment is just a Transfer from your checking account to the Credit Card Account.  The expenses are the actual individual charges in the Visa Credit Card Account.  Sounds like you are doing part of it right.  Here's my notes.

The proper way is to set up a credit card ACCOUNT and enter the charges into it when the purchase is made and assigning it to a category. Then when you pay the credit card bill you TRANSFER the payment from your checking account to the credit card account (not a category).   Then if or when you download the payment from the bank you match it to the one you already entered.  And then your Credit Card Account should always match your statement

When you enter the payment in your checking account you put the credit card account name in for the category using square brackets around the name to indicate it is a transfer...like this… [VISA].