topic Re: Tracking CC charges in Credit Cards

Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:44:22 GMT

(This might be more appropriate in the SmorgasBoard forum -- if so, please feel MORE than free to move it, Mods!)

Now that the Hubster and I are proud owners of spanking new CCs for the first time in ... ohhh ... about 5 years, I was just wondering how ya'll track your purchases with them!

Do you keep a ledger? Rely on the online account records? Use a sticky note on the card or in your wallet/purse??

I'll bet that most of you have thousands of dollars CLs, so your concern is probably not "going over" but it's one of our concerns, since we've only got $500 on one and $1K on another. Plus, to make sure that we only spend what we can PIF (well, leave a teeny-tiny balance so they love us).

So what do you do to keep track?! Advice, suggestions, anecdotes welcomed!! Thanks!!

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:09:26 GMT

I use a combination of Microsoft Money and Excel. MS Money for account ledgers and reports, and especially for cash flow forecasting, and Excel for statement dates and due dates and so on.

I can't say enough good things about MS Money.

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:12:32 GMT

Thanks for the response, Cheddar!!

Do you just religiously keep the receipts and enter them in? Or do you download from the CC's online account manager?

Thanks again!!!!

Re: Tracking CC charges

smallfry — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:12:48 GMT

Keep the receipts and match them up with what shows online. Couldn't be easier than that.

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:15:02 GMT

Wonderin wrote:
Thanks for the response, Cheddar!!

Do you just religiously keep the receipts and enter them in? Or do you download from the CC's online account manager?

Thanks again!!!!

I keep the receipts and enter them daily, usually just before bedtime. Yes, it takes some discipline to keep on top of it, but it has to be done.

When a CC issues a statement, I balance it against the ledger I have in MS Money. MS Money allows you to enter a statement date and ending balance for your statement, then you check off each charge that is listed on the statement in order to mark it as reconciled.

Re: Tracking CC charges

Watchmann — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:08:14 GMT

I have an excel spreadsheet with a tab for each card and I manually enter each charge (or credit) a few times a week. It rolls up the totals to my master budget which extends for a year, so I'll know where I'll be in a year. Makes planning far easier to do it this way.

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:14:37 GMT

I use to use different spreadsheets and what not. But for a long while now I have started putting each purchase in my transaction register. (I religiously balance my checkbook, the old fashioned way).

Anyway, I keep track of my accounts by using Mint.com and have certain alerts set up.

But what I love about the transaction register-when I pay the balance I have a place to put the transaction number or receipt number. This way I can prove I have paid.

Plus, I am faithfully watching my bank balance at the same time. This tells me exactly what I can spend. For me this is the only way I can use a credit card. It forces me to not OVERSPEND which we all tend to do when we carry plastic.

Everyone is different but this works easily for me. Most of the time I end up paying for transactions on Fridays. Then I put the receipt # in my register. When it clears the bank I check it off. Sounds like a lot, but it was so much more work trying to keep it all straight the other way.

I like Money, but I have had too many accidents with the computer that I need a paper system that is not vulnerable to being broken. (Long story but lost lots of information when the brother in law got drunk and took a rake to my laptop......not so cool)

Sorry for the long post.....whew!

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:26:46 GMT

"Anyway, I keep track of my accounts by using Mint.com and have certain alerts set up." I just found Mint.com and I love it. DW and I only have 5 CC's between the two of us, but logging on to each site/account was a pain in the backside. With Mint.com all of our CC accounts are there to view at once.

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:32:40 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
"Anyway, I keep track of my accounts by using Mint.com and have certain alerts set up." I just found Mint.com and I love it. DW and I only have 5 CC's between the two of us, but logging on to each site/account was a pain in the backside. With Mint.com all of our CC accounts are there to view at once.

Yes it is very cool isn't it! I love that I get a weekly email and it also lets me budget my spending. It works too, I went to Houston a few weeks ago and I ate out ALOT. Anyway I got an "unusually high amount" alert on food budget.

It is a very easy site to use, and you can't beat free!

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:41:39 GMT

cheddar: Every month MS Money counts all my CC purchases twice, it accounts for all the purchases on the CCC statements as their respective categories, and then all the bank drafts to pay the CCs off get counted as "debt payment" or whatever. I'm just figuring money out, but is there a way to tell it not to count payments to my PIFers as any category and only the CC with a large balance would be counted as a payment towards my debt?

I just want to be able to track my spending habits more closely, and I can just ignore that category, but I want to know if theres a way to remedy that problem in case I want to make a budget in money or something like that.

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:47:26 GMT

thrasher865 wrote:

cheddar: Every month MS Money counts all my CC purchases twice, it accounts for all the purchases on the CCC statements as their respective categories, and then all the bank drafts to pay the CCs off get counted as "debt payment" or whatever. I'm just figuring money out, but is there a way to tell it not to count payments to my PIFers as any category and only the CC with a large balance would be counted as a payment towards my debt?

I just want to be able to track my spending habits more closely, and I can just ignore that category, but I want to know if theres a way to remedy that problem in case I want to make a budget in money or something like that.

Yes, there is a way to get around that problem. I know the problem you're referring to, and this is probably my only complaint with MS Money.

When you purchase something on a CC, that is entered as a purchase (along with its appropriate budget category) in the CC account's ledger. Then, when you pay the CC, you can enter it as a Transfer rather than a debit to your checking account.

This is actually more accurate, anyway, because when you make a CC payment, you're not purchasing anything. Your net worth doesn't change. You are just moving over some of the credit balance in one account (checking) in order to offset a debit balance in another account (the CC).

Then when you run reports and so on, there is an option to exclude or include transfer transactions. If you exclude them, you won't see your CC payments included in any of your reports.

Did that answer your question, or am I not understanding what you're asking?

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:55:18 GMT

That's exactly what I was asking, thanks.

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:44:05 GMT

Tracking does nothing more then tells where your money went after the the fact , so I use http://enjoy.finicity.com , that lets you decide where you money will be going BEFORE you spend it

Re: Tracking CC charges

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:24:32 GMT

Tracking is an important first step to determining a budget.

Re: Tracking CC charges

granny031350 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:59:08 GMT

I am a Quicken user and have been for years and years. I download everything from the websites right to quicken.