tracking credit card cash back

D Morley · February 3

Quicken Deluxe R65.20 Build 27.1.65.20

I recently got a new credit card that has 2% cash back on all purchases. I was trying to find a way that I could easily track the build up of the cash back within Quicken. My first thought was to have a separate account and have 2% of all purchases and refunds go into that account. However, I cannot find any way to make that work. Alternatively, I can generate a monthly report and calculate the cash back but this is not automatic.

The Bank shows a running total, and I really have no reason not to trust it, but I would prefer to keep track of it myself.

Do any of you track your CC cash back in Quicken? If so, how do you do it?

Dan

NotACPA · February 3

Well, you could create a banking/asset type account … and split each transaction with the 2% being a transfer to such account.

Then, when you actually receive the money, show it as coming from that account.

Jim_Harman · February 3

I have a card that gives cash back for travel expenses. When I receive the credit in the card account, I use the Travel Category, because it reduces my travel expenses. I trust the bank's accounting.

If your card gives the credit for all purchases, you might use the same Category you use for card fees, or you could create a special category for rebates or whatever. You could estimate what the amount should be by computing 2% of the total charges on the card since the last rebate.

RalphC · February 3

Personally, I prefer to have all of my cash back awards simply credited back to the credit card and it gets coded to a non-taxable income account. I don't see a need to really track it other than to record it the register. However, you might look into using Tags to track the income. The tag could be called something like Cashback Award, or Automatic Statement Credit. Optionally, append the credit card name to the tag. This would allow you to generate reports based on the tag.

Arctic Hare · February 3

I have a similar credit card. I trust the bank's calculation. When I opt to receive the cash reward, I assign the cashback to a custom category I defined for that purpose (i.e. "credit card - cash back reward". I could, on an aggregate basis do an approximate comparison of spend to rebate occasionally (I don't). I expect it to be correct. If it were wrong, I can't imagine it being materially wrong… materially wrong enough to warrant my time tracking it that is.

mshiggins · February 3

I guess it depends on how much the 2% will amount to per month or per year. And how much time you are willing to spend tracking it in Quicken.

I have a credit card rewards account for each of my credit cards that give rewards. I enter a transaction each month to record the accumulated points or dollars from what is reported on the credit card statement. I initially had an excel to check the bank’s math, but never found any issue so abandoned that extra effort long back.

Each card has a different redemption method. One will rebate cash to my checking account, another will rebate cash as a credit to the credit card account, another will let me “buy” gift cards, and the last will only let me request a check via postal mail. I record each of those redemptions in their respective destination accounts.

Definitely not a one size fits all type of solution. To each their own…

Arctic Hare · February 3

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20535937#Comment_20535937

In my case the value of the reward is quite significant because my spouse and I share a common credit card account and almost everything we purchase goes on that card. Literally any spend that can be done on a credit card is purchased on this one CC account. And, 2% of a lot of annual spend is a significant reward. However, I'm fine with recognizing that as tax free income only at the instants I choose to redeem a reward - which my card lets me do in any amount at any time any number of times per year (more flexibility that I need or use). This approach to recognition is personal preference. For me - again personal preference - I find no value in tracking this periodically as it is earned. My investment in tracking and monitoring across all my banking and investing is proportional to perceived risk and utility. I see little risk in the these "funds" and I would get no utility tracking it - the value of the available reward is presented to me everytime I log into the App or online banking, which I do frequently for other reasons. But, each and everyone should do what floats their own boat ;-)

volvogirl · February 3

Interesting discussion. I just have to weight in with my experience. This might be long but stay with me. I have 2 credit cards, one at my credit union which I carry with me and one at a bank that I only use for online shopping. My credit union card posts the rewards to my savings account each month. I enter it as Other Income.

Now my bank card I never knew or paid attention to the rewards. Didn't know about them or that I could use it so it just built up. I think my sister mentioned she used hers for something so I checked and had over $600 in the rewards account. So I bought a shredder and started getting restaurant gift cards and DoorDash cards. I use DoorDash a lot since my husband died. Well this last time when I went to get another DoorDash card I realized I was missing out. By applying the credit to DoorDash I wasn't getting charged for using DoorDash and missing out on more rewards. And it's kind of a hassle waiting for the E Card to post and then apply it to my DoorDash account. And I could only get a $100 E-Card and I wanted more.

Then it dawned on me that I could apply the reward directly to my credit card which would still cover my DoorDash purchases! Which is simpler to do and I could apply more $. So I get the same benefit as if I had gotten the DoorDash card, BUT I don't lose out on getting more rewards.

And recently I asked the bank to increase my limit and they also said I could upgrade my card so I now get 2% rewards instead of 1%. So it's building up faster. Wow I just realized my $600 was 1% of $60,000! Well I was married for 50 years and had the card a long time.

MauryJ · February 4

I have a few cards I use that offer very different ways of distributing rewards. One is a 2% Fidelity Visa card that just automatically dumps 2% into your Fidelity individual account. I just categorize that as “rewards” in the investment account, but not in the spending account. Most of our non food or non gas spending goes on this card, especially big expenses like a recent hot water heater, roof, HVAC system, etc.

One is an Apple card that instantly gives you 1-3% back to a cash card within a day or 2 of purchase. The amount of cash per line item is on the statement right next to the charge. Now you could do the math (subtract 31¢ from your $31 purchase) - but that doesn’t really work as a split, because the spits have to total the amount you owe, which is the $31, and it’s too much work to deal with it otherwise, so I just treat the cash card as found money.The whole purpose of categories for me is just coming up with estimated spend and looking for anomalies that need to be dealt with. I don’t stick to a budget as a discipline per se. If I did, I might just factor in a rewards $ number as factor of my yearly spend.

The other 2 cards are product specific. One is a Verizon Visa that pays 4% on dining, groceries, & gas, & 1% on the Verizon auto debit for paying my bill. The rewards are only spendable towards my Verizon charges, so I just treat it as a variable perk and the savings show up on the next bill. All the statements keep an annual tab of rewards. If my cellular bill goes down $50 one month, it just shows up in that category as being $50 less. That credit toward my bill varies every month.

Because of their incremental nature I don’t give a perfect accounting of rewards distributions, but they are factored into my savings and spending as noted above.

Leslie Jones · February 4

I created a separate account because then when I spend the rewards I can categorize them properly. Travel, clothing, household, etc. I don’t mind entering the amount of the credit myself.

tracking credit card cash back

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