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Handling credit card payments

I am a new user of Quicken and have run into a problem that I figure must have an elegant solution.

I download all of my information so when I make a credit card payment, this happens:

Bank of America shows payment of $100 (reduces money I have) Chase shows payment of $100 (reduces amount I owe)

Then I categorize (like I think I've seen recommended)

I categorize BofA [transfer to/from Chase] I categorize Chase [transfer to/from BofA]

Then it looks as if Quicken is creating another transaction in each of the accounts, resulting in 4 transactions. I think it all works out, but I don't think I should have 4 transactions in Quicken for one payment.

Also, once I get the above part figured out, how do I understand what I'm really spending? I ran a report and the transfers show up, which I don't think they should when I'm trying to figure out what I spend my money on... Do I just customize the report to not include transfers or is there a better way to do it?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Reply to
snaans
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I can answer part of your question. When you categorize the BoF transfer, it creates a new transaction in chase. So, that means you should delete the downloaded transaction in Chase because it's already covered by the transfer. Anyway, that's one way to do it.

Another way would be to download from BA first, then go in there and categorize the transfer. Then when you download from Chase, it should ask you if the transaction it has just downloaded is the same as the BofA transfer. Click yes.

Does any of that make sense? If not, please say so. Meanwhile, I'm sure other users will have more elegant solutions.

Actually, one more thought: When you first make the payment to Chase, don't you manually enter that into your BofA register (either as a check or an electronic transfer)? If so, if you categorize it as a transfer then, then when you download from both BofA and from Chase, they should recognize it as an existing transfer and ask you about it.

Reply to
DP

Yes, thank you, that does make sense. I had considered this, but I figured that this would be such a common occurance that there would be a feature that handled this (without manual deletes). Thank you again for the quick response!

Reply to
snaans

The "without manual deletes" answer is ... record the transaction in Q when you FIRST make/authorize the payment.

THEN, when it actually occurs, and the transaction downloads on BOTH sides ... it will show as a "Match" instead of a "NEW".

db

Reply to
danbrown

The "without manual deletes" answer is ... record the transaction in Q when you FIRST make/authorize the payment.

THEN, when it actually occurs, and the transaction downloads on BOTH sides ... it will show as a "Match" instead of a "NEW".

db

Reply to
danbrown

The "without manual deletes" answer is ... record the transaction in Q when you FIRST make/authorize the payment.

THEN, when it actually occurs, and the transaction downloads on BOTH sides ... it will show as a "Match" instead of a "NEW".

db

Reply to
danbrown

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