Credit Card Overpaid?
I'm still just super confused. Here is what I'm seeing on my end. How does this work? My payment is exactly what my balance was, but YNAB is saying I overpaid. Can anybody explain this to me? (Just to clarify, the only uncleared balance is my payment so I am showing the exact amount for my credit and debit)
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Hi Tomato Sidewinder !
I'd love to help get this figured out! When your Credit Card Payment category is red, it means you made a payment for more than you had "available" in your Payment column. Since it sounds like you regularly pay the entire balance of your CC (I do too! I use my CC for everything, and pay the balance whenever I feel like it. 馃槈) I think the issue could either be due to overspending or a return/refund.
- 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 (which you did, in this case), you鈥檒l have spent more on your credit card payment than you had budgeted. (Did you overspend a total $16.31 in any category?)
- 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. (Did you have a return(s) that total $16.31?)
If you're more of a visual thinker, here's a video explaining the above reasons (and a couple more) of why this can happen.
Basically, 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鈥檛 have any dollars To be Budgeted, you'll need to move money from other categories.
Let me know if you track down the culprit! 馃挭
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Yes! Mark this thing answered! I finally get it! I overspent in my clothing budget because I'm waiting for a refund to come through. When the refund does come through I'm going to change the date to the day I purchased it and I think that should resolve the issue. Thank you!
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In my case, there鈥檚 a $58.41 overpayment on the credit card. $69.47 Budgeted. $69.47 Activity. $0.00 Available. Yesterday there was a $58.41 To Be Budgeted amount which seemed to come from nowhere. I didn鈥檛 see a connection at that time to the credit card and budgeted that to a miscellaneous category. I never saw any red alerts throughout any of this. I only pay what YNAB indicates and there were no returns or refunds. How can I avoid overpayments in the future?
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Hi Powder Blue Tiger !
The fact that you had $58.41 in your To Be Budgeted and $58.41 overpaid on the credit card makes me wonder if your credit card had a positive balance in your budget. When a credit card has a positive balance, the amount appears in your To Be Budgeted (because a positive balance on a credit card is like cash, it can be spent anywhere without creating new debt).
Can you check the balance on your credit card and let me know what you find?
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Faness My credit card has a positive balance of $58.41
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Powder Blue Tiger That explains it! You'll want to budget that $58.41 back towards your credit card category to cover the negative amount you're seeing. Here's a quick video that goes over what happens when your Credit Card has a Positive Balance.
It's important to note that when you make a purchase on a card with a positive balance, no money will move to the Credit Card Payment category, since you don鈥檛 have anything to pay back.
As long as you cover that negative now, and budget for your credit card transactions going forward (sans the positive $58.41 currently on the card) you should be good to go! :)
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Faness My reconciled credit card balance is zero while the Available column totals $11.06. How would I troubleshoot this step by step?
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Powder Blue Tiger After your last payment, the Available balance and the credit card balance were both zero, correct?
If that's the case, you'll need to look at your transactions since that last payment. Were any of them for $11.06 exactly? Did you have any refunds?
In your budget, click on the amount in the Activity column. That will break down your Budgeted Spending vs your actual spending and should help pinpoint where that $11.06 is coming from.
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Faness I don't recall whether both the credit card balance and the Available balance were zero after my last payment. My goal would've been to definitely make sure the Available balance was paid to the card. There are reconciliation adjustments from February totaling $565.65. No transactions totaling $11.06 or returns.
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Powder Blue Tiger You'll want your Available balance and your credit card balance to match. Once those are aligned, they shouldn't fall out of line as long as you budget for all future transactions. Have those numbers been different since the reconciliation back in February?
If you're still having trouble, let me know and I'll reach out via email to take a closer look at things! :)
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Faness Thanks for your tremendous support! I'll move the $11.06 out of Available and see if that resolves things going forward.
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Powder Blue Tiger You're very welcome! If ever those numbers seem off, just let us know - we'll be here! :)
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Thank you for the video! I think what confuses me the most is that I pay what YNAB indicates. I'm not sure how the situation (positive balance) was created.
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Powder Blue Tiger Hmm, I would love to narrow down how that positive balance was created as well! If you look through your transaction activity from that time, could you narrow it down? It was either from a payment (you paid too much) or from a return? Perhaps you had more available in your credit card payments category (in YNAB) than your actual CC balance (in your online banking), but you paid what you had available?
The trick that I use to make sure everything is lining up, is I constantly check my available for payment balance vs. CC balance:
If those match, then I'm good! If not, I know I have some moving money work to do. 馃槉
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