Credit card balance skewed by account credit
I'm sure this has been covered, but I can't find it in search.
Statement closing balance on the card $1000. This is going to be paid in full. The money is in the budget and the category is green.
First day of the next billing cycle, I get a $5 credit. If I put this in the register, it knocks the amount set aside down to $995 which turns the category yellow, presumably because I have a $1000 payment to make but now only $995 in the category.
Yes, my net due is $995 right now, but $1000 is going to be paid on the due date.
How do I record this -- can I record this -- so that the balance on the budget screen stays green? I can leave the entry with no amount until I spend $5 or more on the card, I suppose, but that seems flawed.
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It's yellow because you have a scheduled payment with $1000 going into a category that only has $995 in it. Those $5 are not accounted for. If you get a statement credit of $5 but you are still paying the same previous amount, then that $5 has not materialized yet for you. Or, in effect, you are loaning the credit card company $5 until you spend it, so that money should be allocated as such.
Option #1: When you categorized the credit, that category gained $5 of available money. Move those $5 back into the CC payment so that it shows a green $1000. Then, when you once again have a positive balance, the CC payment will want you to preserve that $5 negative balance, so you'll move the $5 back into whatever category the credit was for.
Option #2: If you categorize the credit as Inflow: To Be Budgeted, then it effectively does the above for you. The money effectively doesn't appear in your budget until you've brought your CC balance positive again.
After either of those, if you spend $50 on the card, the Payment will show $50 so you'll want to change that to $45 and THAT is when you finally get to add the $5 to your other budget categories.
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Option 1 is busywork.
Option 2 doesn't keep the category from going yellow.
Option 3 seems better: Put a note of the credit amount in the memo but leave the amount at $0. Once I spent at least the credit amount on that card, enter the credit amount on the item using whatever category I want and then the account balance and budget balance will fall in line and stay green.
It's not ideal, but at least I don't have to move stuff around for it to work.
Thanks for the post.
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Change the scheduled transaction to $995. If you've scheduled a $1000 payment, change that as well. If the CC is pulling the payment, they will only pull $995 (the remaining statement balance).
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dakinemaui It's been my experience that they'll pull the statement balance as of the closing date. The statement closes on the 2d and is paid on the 27th. By the time the 27th rolls around, the outstanding balance will be higher than the previous closing balance. It's days between the 2d and the next change on the card showing up as yellow that I want to avoid. Bottom line, they will pull $1000 on the 27th.
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Habanero Salsa does this card not have paid-in-full status? I assumed the category matches the account, which would also make the account balance $995..
If that's not the case, as soon as you make a $5 purchase, even a $1000 payment will be covered. Edit, as you said.
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This happens to me with my AmEx that I have on auto pay. It doesn't adjust the payment down when I apply my statement credits. It clears itself up after enough new charges cause the CC balance to once again exceed the next payment amount.
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nolesrule Yes, exactly. And this is, in fact, AMEX. As I said, once I've charged something that exceeds the credit, everything will be green again even with the credit. I very much dislike the yellow -- every day or so I expand the budget and scroll looking for anything other than green -- so I think I'll leave the credit as a $0 item until another charge hits.
If my youtubetv hit before my Netflix, it wouldn't even happen.
It would be nice to be able to "pin" a payment amount somehow but it's probably niche enough not to be worth the coding effort.
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