Mortgage amortization no longer working properly

My regular Quicken version is currently Home, Business & Rental Property R43.26 (I typically do not install new releases until they have been out for a while and I have had the opportunity to see what others have to say about them); I do not see your problem in R43.26.

I had been testing on another computer with R46.9; and while I was not specifically checking mortgage loan payments, I don't recall seeing the problem there either.

After reading your post here, I installed R46.12 on my test machine and manually Entered the Reminder for the next payment for a test loan (I did not look at the Reminder split before I started the Enter routine, nor during the Enter routine. After manually entering that loan payment transaction, I saw the same problem you report - the loan payment split transaction is screwed up exactly as you note.

Then I turned my attention to a different test loan.

This time I first checked the Reminder for the loan payment (by selecting the Reminder and clicking "Edit" in the Bill & Income Reminders menu row, then opening its Split): the split for that loan reminder was correct. I cancelled out of the Edit.

Next, while the same loan payment Reminder was selected, I clicked its Edit button, and opened the split in the resulting dialog. At that point, the split had become hosed, just as did the previous test loan payment transaction I entered.

I tried one more test: I changed the loan payment Reminder from "Remind me" to "Auto Enter" (enough days in advance so the Auto Enter qualify for auto-enter. Then I exited and restarted Quicken. The Auto-Enter loan payment transaction split was correct. [I also have my own mortgage loan in that test file and my mortgage loan payment is always an Auto-Enter reminder: I changed it so the next payment would be auto-entered, exited/restarted Quicken, and my next loan payment had been entered with the correct principal/split]

So it appears that something goes wrong during the manual Enter process for a loan payment Reminder which screws up the split.

[I did a quick test of a non-loan split transaction (with one split line a transfer, the other split line an expense). When I manually entered that split Reminder, I did not see the problem.]

I don't claim to be able to guarantee anything, but I look at it like this.

First of all, this seems clearly to be a bug, and I think you should report it to Quicken using Help > Report a Problem. I would plan to send a sanitized copy of your Quicken QDF file (Quicken will do the sanitizing if you request it). There is a size limit on the file you can send directly from Quicken: if your sanitized file is too large, you can put a copy of it someplace like One Drive or Google Drive and include that information in the Report a Problem problem description.

Since the Reminder transaction itself does not appear to be corrupted, you can take one of two approaches until Quicken fixes the problem:

1.) Change the loan payment Reminder to Auto-Enter 2.) Continue manually Entering the loan payment Reminder, but correct the split during the Enter process.

Two other options I would not choose personally:

1.) Manually enter the loan payment transaction without altering the split; then alter the split in the loan payment account. To me, it's easier to modify during the Enter process. [But it's good to know that the loan payment transaction CAN be corrected once it has been entered.] 2.) Uninstall Quicken, then reinstall Quicken making sure Quicken can not access the internet during the install. Once the install is complete, manually update to a Release that does not have the problem (I suspect that R46.9 will work, if not then then probably R45.13). I think reinstalling is more work than this particular problem warrants.

Sorry, there is one wrong word in that paragraph, making the whole thing wrong. That paragraph should read (emphasis added):

Next, while the same loan payment Reminder was selected, I clicked its ENTER button, and opened the split in the resulting dialog. At that point, the split had become hosed, just as did the previous test loan payment transaction I entered.

Yes. That is EXACTLY what happened to me. Clicking on the EDIT button shows a correct allocation, but clicking on ENTER instead shows the entire amount being allocated to no category.

I had already planned to take option #1, modifying the split during the ENTER transaction, until a more permanent solution is found. It seems to be the simplest solution.

I will report the issue to Quicken.

Thanks, John!

Two other people have reported the same issue on the Quicken Community forum under the subject "Why did Quicken stop distributing my mortgage payments between principal and interest?" One said he reported it to Quicken and the other said he was going to.

You may not be surprised by this, but the same thing happens with a regular loan too. I just paid my car loan and it put the entire payment on a blank line with no category.

I'm not surprised because I assumed the problem occurred when the "Enter Transaction" button is clicked during the manual Enter process for all loan payment transactions.

I never thought it had anything to do with the type of loan - and that's largely because, in Quicken, there's really only one loan type: a traditional mortgage loan. Every Quicken manual loan is constructed using the criteria for a traditional mortgage loan.

Based on comments in the Quicken Community, I believe Quicken is aware of the problem; and while I know better than to make predictions about such things, this seems like a problem Quicken can fix within the next one or two patches (depending on how far along they were with the next patch before they became aware of the problem).

Let's hope so. No biggie. I always had to adjust Quicken's amortization anyway for each payment—a penny or two for the mortgage and a few dollars for the auto loan.

Any loan that is not a traditional mortgage loan will likely have to have the principal/interest split manually modified for every payment.

But in my experience, Quicken gets the principal/interest split correct for all traditional mortgage loan payments. If there is any slight difference in the traditional mortgage loan setup between Quicken and the financial institution (such as Start Date, for example), that can throw the split off.

[Quicken makes derives every loan payment principal/interest split from the loan Payment Schedule it computes at the conclusion of the loan setup process.]

The latest Quicken update R47.11 HF1 is supposed to fix the problem according to the release notes. I will try it out next week when I make our mortgage payment.

I just tested in R47.11; the problem does appear to have been fixed.

But there is an even uglier problem in R47.11: mass changes to payees, categories, tags, etc. is broken. It doesn't work from reports, nor does it work when using the right-click option to "Edit transaction(s)" in an account register.

There's an Alert for it in the Quicken Community: if you "follow" that Alert, I believe you will get notified when the problem has been fixed.

Thanks, John. It's always something. ;)

Fortunately for me, I rarely do mass changes.

I'm now using R47.11 on a regular basis, and I need to correct part of the following comment.

Still true.

This is not true (I think I made a mistake claiming it was). The R47.11 right-click/Edit transaction(s) option still DOES permit mass changing payees, categories, tags, etc.

And if you use the Quicken All Transactions pseudo-register, you can mass change those fields across multiple accounts (including banking-type transactions in investment accounts).

Also, multiple transactions can still be deleted using a Quicken report that displays individual transactions ... for any/all account types and transaction types.

BTW, the latest update (R47.11) *did* fix the loan amortization problem.

I discovered the issue you posted about today (2/11) about everything going to one uncategorized line and after upgrading to R47.15 it appears to be fixed but now it's miscalculating the principal and adding the extra to Tax:Property even though I already have a line for that. For last month I had to manually fix the transaction. If I look at the loan details it does have the correct principal but it's basically not making it into the transaction correctly.

I just installed R47.15 and tested this issue: I see no problem. The loan payment principal/interest splits are correct in the payment Reminder and they remain correct after the Reminder is manually Entered. [NOTE: I only tested a loan with nothing but principal/interest - no escrow or other factors.]

The principal/interest split is not calculated at the time you enter the payment; that split is calculated for all payments for a given loan whenever the loan Payment Schedule is created/re-created.

When you Enter a loan payment transaction, Quicken just looks up the principal/interest split that is already present in the loan Payment Schedule and puts that split in the loan payment transaction. If the loan Payment Schedule is incorrect, all your subsequent loan payment transaction splits will be incorrect.

You should check your Loan Payment Schedule to insure it is correct. If not, you should be able to get it recomputed by opening the Loan Terms dialog for the loan, correcting any discrepancies, and pressing OK. BACKUP first.

In R47.15: I setup a new test loan that included a payment to an escrow account, in addition to the principal/interest split. I still see no problem: once the loan payment transaction reminder is manually entered, all split lines remain exactly as they were in the reminder.