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Paying a credit card with a linked checking account

PJPRICE

I try to track my spending with both my checking and credit card. I'm not sure how to correctly log the transfer between accounts. Quicken automatically changes them in from time to time and now I'm lost enough that I'm not sure which is correct. Does the payee matter?

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UKR

Regardless of how the actual payment transaction is processed (Autopay by the credit card company, Bill Pay or by mailing a check), I recommend you record the payment transaction in Quicken as a transfer from the checking account to the credit card account.
Remember to do so BEFORE the due date, before any payment confirmations are downloaded from either bank or credit card.

Using a Scheduled Reminder to do so, and to remind you of its due date every month, might be the best method.

To record a transfer in Quicken, you enter the credit card's register name in the Category field, enclosed in [square brackets], e.g., [ABC VISA]
When done in the checking account, you will have a "linked pair of transfer transactions", one in the checking account, the other one in the credit card account register pointing to each other's account names. For example,

When transactions are eventually downloaded from either bank, Quicken will be able to match the downloaded transaction to the ones that you already recorded in the register.
If you wait until transactions download from either bank, Quicken may not be able to recognize the transfer correctly and create mis-categorized transactions and possibly duplicate transactions, requiring you to make corrections in both registers.

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The Keeper

Clarify "correctly log the transfer between accounts." How do you pay your credit card statement? Quicken bill pay - write a check - electronic payment through your bank or credit union?

splasher

If you are tracking your credit card purchases in a credit card account in Quicken, then the payment in the checking account to the credit card account is not an expense but a transfer of of funds from one pocket to another pocket which makes it a Quicken transfer.

Quicken transfers uses the mating account in the transfer as the category in their register transactions. So, if your accounts are named "Checking" and "Visa", the category in the checking account transaction would be "Visa" and the category in the credit card transaction would be "Checking". When you create the first of the transactions, Quicken auto-generates the mating transaction in the other account.

If you create these transactions prior to downloading them from the financial institution, you will want to make sure that Quicken matches them to the previously transactions.

UKR

Using a Scheduled Reminder to do so, and to remind you of its due date every month, might be the best method.