Incorrect Negative Credit Card Payment
I just paid off my credit card in full, and now my credit card payment category says -95.35.
I started YNAB before opening the card, so the card started with a $0 balance. I have no red or orange categories anywhere in my budget for any month (except for this month's credit card payment category).
In this screen shot, I have selected every single cleared transaction in my credit card transaction log. As you can see, the selected balance is $0, so I haven't accidentally paid too much to my credit card company. Additionally, my credit card balance is showing up as $0 on the credit card website.
I checked all of my accounts for transactions related to the credit card, and there are only the valid, cleared transfers from my checking to my credit card for each payment.
What could possibly be going wrong here?
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do you have refunds that came in before/after you made a payment?
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King I have no refunds of any kind on that card
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did you budget the full amount to you credit card payment category? That negative indicates that you paid the credit card but was short in your budget amount
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King Yes. Well, I've never manually budgeted anything in my credit card category. When I add a credit card transaction, YNAB automatically budgets that amount to the credit card payment category. I suppose there could be a transaction that YNAB for some reason didn't do that for, but I'm not sure how to figure out if that happened or why it would have happened.
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Powder Blue Trombone Is it possible you have overspending in a hidden category?
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without seeing your whole transaction history/budget it would be hard to tell. However, that's the most likely scenario, that you spent in a category you didn't budget for so the dollars never moved to the credit card category.
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I also suspect your transfer out to Mommy & Daddy might have something to do with it. Transfer outs from CC like cash advances sometimes does weird things
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Hi Powder Blue Trombone !
You're right, you didn't overpay your credit card, you just overspent on your credit card payment! That red overspending is just like cash overspending in any other category, so you can move money or budget more there to cover the overspending.
As for how it happened, that'll take some investigation! Here's a video explaining the following reasons why this can happen:
- Overspending. If you had any credit card overspending in your budget (in the current or a previous month), the Payment amount would be lower than the balance due. If you still paid the full amount, you’ll have spent more on your credit card payment than you had budgeted.
- Starting Balance. If you had an outstanding balance on a credit card when you set it up in YNAB, and you paid that in full but didn't budget for it in the Credit Card Payments category, it'll show your Credit Card Payment category as overspent. Budgeting for that balance in your Credit Card Payment category lets the budget know you plan to take some of the money you have and use it to pay off that existing balance. Here’s a video explaining how this works.
- Overpayment. If your payment created a positive balance on a card, the positive balance is treated like cash and is added to To be Budgeted. Budgeting those dollars directly to the Credit Card Payment category will bring it out of the red.
- Returns/Refunds. If you had any returns/refunds on this card, and you paid off your card between your original purchase and your refund, you might see that your payment category is short and goes red.
For all of the above scenarios, the solution at this point is to budget directly to the Credit Card Payment category until the Payment number matches your next payment amount. If you don’t have any dollars To be Budgeted, you'll need to move money from other categories.
Does that help you track down the culprit in your budget? Let me know how it goes. I'm happy to work with you on it until we get all of your questions answered and your budget and credit cards are running nice and smoothly!
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Jannelle I'm sorry, I don't understand reason #4 turning the payment category red? Also for #3, when does it put your overpayment in To Be Budgeted?
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Sky Blue Mask Reason #4 is you already sent the money to the CC company before you got the refund. That means the money you overpaid your credit card after the fact, and the money is not available to you in cash for use in your budget, yet it's sitting in a spending category.
So you'd either have to spend that money on a credit card again, or remove it from the spending category so it covers the overpayment-after-the-fact to the credit card.
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nolesrule Could I just create an inflow for that spent category to balance things out?
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Sky Blue Mask No, the solution would be to budget directly to the Credit Card Payment category until the Payment number matches your next payment amount. Like this:
If you don’t have any dollars To be Budgeted, you'll need to move money from other categories.
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Correction to Jannelle ‘s somewhat confusing wording: until the Payment category number matches your current account balance. The payment you plan to make is irrelevant, except in so far as the payment category needs to be bigger than that number. What matters is that it matches.
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nolesrule
Reason #4 is you already sent the money to the CC company before you got the refund. That means the money you overpaid your credit card after the fact, and the money is not available to you in cash for use in your budget, yet it's sitting in a spending category.
So you'd either have to spend that money on a credit card again, or remove it from the spending category so it covers the overpayment-after-the-fact to the credit card.
I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time understanding this :/ Could you explain it to me like I'm 5? lol Ugh
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Also, how did this possibly happen if my credit card purchases go directly to my credit card payments? -
Sky Blue Mask does the payment category that is green have too much money in it???
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satcook No, actually the balance for that card that says Payment $320.39 is $487.52 on the left side where the balances are of all my accounts.
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Sky Blue Mask so you will have the same issue for that card if you pay it down to $0
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Sky Blue Mask have you looked through past months for overspending that snuck through?
Has your credit card ever ever had a positive balance on it?
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Sky Blue Mask We'd be more than happy to take a closer look at things! :)
If you’re up for it, go ahead and enable Support Access for your account. Once you’ve done that, let me know—and mention whether you’d like to continue the discussion here or via email instead.
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satcook Has your credit card ever ever had a positive balance on it?
It seems that it has. I contacted support. I was too confused. We ended up doing a Fresh Start. I'm now aware that I have to make sure the left balance column is the same as the credit card budget categories.
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Faness Thank you! I contacted support and decided a Fresh Start was in order.
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Hi Sky Blue Mask !
Thanks for letting us know! It's all a process. With each start, you learn new things—making you a better budgeter! Let us know if we can help with anything else. 😀
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There's a lot of threads on refunds and credit cards, including my own questions. I've tried to rebudget the dollars, but still doesn't seem to line up. If I'm faced with this again, I think I'll contact support first.
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Ben K. This list was compiled years ago by a bunch of old-timers:
- starting balance on a paid-in-full card - category is lower
- overspending - category is lower
- uncategorized transactions - category is lower
- outgoing transfers to other on-budget accounts (e.g., gift card account, mixed funding splits) - category is lower
- purchase/cash-back rewards (should be categorized to TBB) - category is higher
- categorizing item returns as TBB (should use the original spending category instead) - category is higher
- reconciliation adjustment - category is lower for an outflow adjustment, higher for an inflow adjustment
- taking the account balance positive - category should be $0 in this case
Additionally, having a return after making the payment will cause the category balance to go lower (possibly negative), and having a return in a category in which multiple credit cards were used and had gone negative could cause the return to affect the wrong credit card.
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nolesrule NB that the last bug (returns affecting the wrong card) has been fixed. It’s the only credit card handling bug that has been addressed, to my knowledge.
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nolesrule thank you. I'll have to let that sink in.
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WordTenor good to know.
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Seems like a poorly implemented feature if customer support needs you to disable privacy settings in order to explain to users how a feature works?
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Tomato Captain What do you mean?
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Hi Tomato Captain !
Enabling Support Access for your account, is completely optional. Some users find it easier if we can view their budget, to see what they're seeing—instead of having to describe the issue.
If you prefer to communicate via email, live chat or in the Support Forum—that is fine too!
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