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Downloaded Category is wrong

knute97

My credit card account had an downloaded entry for Starbucks that incorrectly lists [Paypal] as the category but doesn’t deduct it from the Paypal account.

However, when I change the category to Food-Dining out, the Paypal account is debited incorrectly.

How can I prevent or correct this?

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Boatnmaniac

So this was not a purchase made with PayPal. As I now understand it:

On 4/18 I manually entered a $25 deposit to my Paypal account. (This account does not download and is maintained manually)

OK. What category did you use for this transaction?

On 4/21, a $25 Starbucks charge was downloaded into my Visa account with the category listed as [Paypal] when it should have been listed as Food-Dining out. The 4/18 category in Paypal (1. above) changed the category to [Visa Account]

I suspect that you have the Preference for Transfer Detection enabled. Quicken identified the 4/18 and 4/21 transactions as being a possible transfer. I suspect that your Transfer Detection preference is set to automatically complete the transfer so you would not have been asked to approve it. That creates "surprises" like what you got. You can change your Transfer Detection to notify you before completing the transfer giving you the opportunity to approve or deny the transfer. Then there will be no more "surprises" that need to be corrected.

I corrected this by changing the category in Paypal which caused the 4/21 Visa charge to disappear. This I corrected by manually adding a $25 charge with the correct category to my Visa account. All balances now agreed.

OK, makes sense.

On 4/22, another $25 charge was downloaded to my TD Bank credit card and this was again charged to [Paypal] again changing the category in 1. above to [TD Bank credit card]

Another Quicken automatic transfer detection? Perhaps.

Or, was this also a Starbucks transaction? If so, then it could be that on 4/21 Quicken added the Starbucks transfer transaction to the Memorized Payee List and the automatically applied the same transfer category to this 4/22 transaction. To prevent this from happening again go to Tools > Memorized Payee List and look for the that Payee. If you find it, delete it.

Let me know if this makes sense or if you have any questions. Are my suspicions about the Transfer Detection preference and the Memorized Payee List correct?

All comments

Boatnmaniac

Which credit card was used for the purchase? Was the transaction downloaded into that account?

Was Paypal actually involved in your Starbucks purchase in any way? Was there a transaction downloaded into Paypal?

Where did you change the category? In the Paypal account or in the credit card account?

FYI: When the category for a transaction lists the account in brackets like that it makes it a transfer. If the account is Paypal and the category is [Paypal] it tells Quicken it is a transfer to itself so there is no change in the account register balance.

Generally, when a transaction is made with Paypal and Paypal then pulls the money for that transaction from another account (such as a credit card, checking account or savings account) there should be two different transactions downloaded:

A transaction for Paypal debiting the Paypal account balance. The category for this should be the category of the purchase itself….in this case Food-Dining out would be correct.
A transaction for the credit card. The category for this should be a transfer to the Paypal account….in this case [Paypal] would be correct. This will then enter a 2nd transaction in the Paypal account which funds the #1 transaction.
#1 and #2 should result in a $0.00 net impact to the account register balance in the Paypal account.

Ideally it would be great if there would be a 2nd transaction downloaded into Paypal so not only is the purchase transaction downloaded but also the funding transaction is downloaded. Maybe that happens for some people but for me it never does.

However, if there is a positive cash balance in the online Paypal account, Paypal will then decrement that balance by the amount of the purchase and there should not have been a transaction downloaded into the credit card account.

NotACPA

Extending @Boatnmaniac's excellent reply.

Q doesn't download categories. Your bank has no idea what category you want to use for a transaction, and thus can't provide it to Q for a download.

That Paypal, as a category, must have come from either your input (not likely in this instance, but a possibility) or a memorized transaction.

knute97

It seems that the only commonality to this issue is that it was a 3 different $25 transactions.

On 4/18 I manually entered a $25 deposit to my Paypal account. (This account does not download and is maintained manually)
On 4/21, a $25 Starbucks charge was downloaded into my Visa account with the category listed as [Paypal] when it should have been listed as Food-Dining out. The 4/18 category in Paypal (1. above) changed the category to [Visa Account]
I corrected this by changing the category in Paypal which caused the 4/21 Visa charge to disappear. This I corrected by manually adding a $25 charge with the correct category to my Visa account. All balances now agreed.
On 4/22, another $25 charge was downloaded to my TD Bank credit card and this was again charged to [Paypal] again changing the category in 1. above to [TD Bank credit card]
I corrected this the same way, changing the category in the Paypal account back to the correct entry which deleted the TD Bank entry. This I corrected by manually entering the transaction in the TD Bank account with the correct category. Now all balances agree.

So, for some reason Quicken re-associated the $25 transaction.

Boatnmaniac

So this was not a purchase made with PayPal. As I now understand it:

On 4/18 I manually entered a $25 deposit to my Paypal account. (This account does not download and is maintained manually)

OK. What category did you use for this transaction?

On 4/21, a $25 Starbucks charge was downloaded into my Visa account with the category listed as [Paypal] when it should have been listed as Food-Dining out. The 4/18 category in Paypal (1. above) changed the category to [Visa Account]

I corrected this by changing the category in Paypal which caused the 4/21 Visa charge to disappear. This I corrected by manually adding a $25 charge with the correct category to my Visa account. All balances now agreed.

OK, makes sense.

On 4/22, another $25 charge was downloaded to my TD Bank credit card and this was again charged to [Paypal] again changing the category in 1. above to [TD Bank credit card]

Another Quicken automatic transfer detection? Perhaps.

Let me know if this makes sense or if you have any questions. Are my suspicions about the Transfer Detection preference and the Memorized Payee List correct?

knute97

Boatnmaniac

Thanks for the responses.

I have taken your suggestions and made the changes. Will let you know if the problems continue.

Thanks again!

Boatnmaniac

@knute97 - You are welcome.