Download Credit Card Transactions to Quicken

[TromboneAl]

Just realized that I could download credit card transactions to Quicken. So far it's working very well. You can have it automatically categorize transactions (e.g. tell it that "Safeway" is groceries.

This will give me finer tracking of expenses, since I rarely categorized every CC transaction.

So, I'm sure many of you do it already, but if you don't, you might look into it.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Can I drink some beer instead?

 

[wallygator69]

Just realized that I could download credit card transactions to Quicken.  So far it's working very well.  You can have it automatically categorize transactions (e.g. tell it that "Safeway" is groceries.

This will give me finer tracking of expenses, since I rarely categorized every  CC transaction.

So, I'm sure many of you do it already, but if you don't, you might look into it.

Hi Al,

I just started Bill Pay and Download from Bank Of America to Quicken free of charge.

If from Quicken I want to download from BOA, I was told I needed to join and pay $9.99 a month to Quicken.

Are you doing it from the bank with no fee?


Thanks,

Wally

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I've never paid a fee to anyone for any downloading of any financial data. Ever. Not sure i've ever seen someone that wanted to charge me for it either. Either someone made a mistake or its time for a new bank. BOA and wells fargo are notorious for nickel and diming their customers to death.

 

[LovesLife]

Wally,
I use Quicken but not Quicken bill pay. I just go to BOA secure site, download the transactions, and viola. I pay my cc bill on the BOA website and have it paid out of my checking account. No charge from my checking account as it is through the credit union.

At the beginning of each month I take my cc statement and figure out how much change I will need for the month. The cc bill is due on the 20th. Around the 12th of the month I have VG transfer this amount to my checking account and pay my cc bill on the day it is due.

 

[TromboneAl]

I pay $9.95/month to QuickenBillPay.  My bank can't handle the automatic bill payments yet.  For the 15 years I've been using that and (formerly CheckFree) that comes to $1791.  Lotsa lobster!

There's no charge for downloads from the credit card company or Vanguard.

The credit card company used to provide free yearly summaries of charges, categorized by store type.  Now they charge $4.95.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Wow...ten bucks a month for bill pay. Digital Credit Union has had it for free for around ten years now...maybe longer.

 

[wallygator69]

Wally,
I use Quicken but not Quicken bill pay.  I just go to BOA secure site, download the transactions, and viola.  I pay my cc bill on the BOA website and have it paid out of my checking account.  No charge from my checking account as it is through the credit union.

At the beginning of each month I take my cc statement and figure out how much change I will need for the month.  The cc bill is due on the 20th.  Around the 12th of the month I have VG transfer this amount to my checking account and pay my cc bill on the day it is due.

Yes, I can do it free from BOA to Quicken but if I try to start the transaction from Quicken I need to join.

I suspect Al's ability to download Split from Credit card into categories is something that is a Quicken feature.

Wally

 

[audreyh1]

I've been doing this for years. It's great!

I also download all financial transactions from my banks/brokerage, etc. No fees involved.

Automatic category assignment is great too - Quicken learns well.

This lets me view a snapshot of my monthly expenses whenever I want and it's all up-to-date. I've created custom reports for this purpose.

Audrey (big fan of Quicken)

 

[thefed]

I download right brom BofA website to quicken. I want to say that a few other accts I have can do the same thing, I think three of the following do as well:

Charter One
MBNA (BofA)
Chase
Citi
Discover

It's handy, but not always entirely accurate.

Never paid a dime for any of it.

 

[TromboneAl]

Just checked the bank again, and they do have a free service that will work almost as well as QuickenBillPay. So, I'll switch next month. Thanks for making me think of this.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Do we get a commission?

 

[SteveR]

My credit union has bill pay and it is free. I can also download my account transactions from the credit union to my Money program. My CC accounts also allow me to download transactions and I do so every month or so. The only extra work is to edit some of them to the correct category. Since we use CC for almost all non-routine utility purchases and bill pay for darn near everything else I can get over 95% of spending transactions downloaded into Money. It sure saves time from manually entering everything and it is all free of charge.

 

[foxhuntr]

I'm also paying the quicken $9.95 monthly fee and on top of that Wells Fargo charges something like $2.50 a month for "bill pay through software". Wells Fargo has free bill pay. I guess I'm a goof for paying these fees.

Does anyone else have Wells Fargo bill pay? If so, can you download these into Quicken?

 

[Tadpole]

I down load what I can. Our retirement accounts can't be downloaded. But, while we are on the subject, I pay MBNA by check on B of A. Quicken does not recognize the payment as the same as the credit for payment. I manually change it but have never found a way to equate the two line items. Is there a way to point the two entries at each other?

 

[audreyh1]

I down load what I can. Our retirement accounts can't be downloaded. But, while we are on the subject, I pay MBNA by check on B of A. Quicken does not recognize the payment as the same as the credit for payment. I manually change it but have never found a way to equate the two line items. Is there a way to point the two entries at each other?

I think I ran into this issue and have a work around. I have a B of A VISA and bank account.

What I do is have my VISA payment (out of my B of A checking) set up as a monthly scheduled transaction in Quicken (see about scheduled transactions) - I just update to the new balance due each month, and it gets entered in the register in each account on the due date (prompts me first I think). Then when I download from BofA whether in my bank account or my credit card account - in both cases - the download recognizes a match - probably just based on the amount. This keeps things straight.

OK - this sounds way more complicated than it is. It's quite simple.

Audrey

 

[TromboneAl]

I'm not understanding exactly what you're saying, Tadpole, but here's what the Quicken help says:

Making a credit card payment

Provided that you track both your checking and your credit card account in Quicken, a credit card payment is typically recorded as a transfer from the checking account to the savings account. If you have online account access for the account from which you're making the payment, it's quick and convenient to handle the payment electronically.

Note that when they say "savings account" I think they mean "credit card account" (typical Intuit blunder).

IOW, once you download the CC transactions, you have a negative balance in your credit card account.  When you pay it with a check, just record that as a transfer to the credit card account. 

 

[Kwirk]

Tadpole, if you click the drop box on "category" you may find a list of possible transfers at the bottom. Click on the transfer that applies. You'll find it then appears in both accounts, credit card and bank.

I've sometimes chosen my banking institutions based on how well they work with Quicken. Until recently I was able to download all banking information to Quicken and pay nearly all bills with Quicken without leaving Quicken. I don't pay fees to Quicken and I don't pay fees to the financial institutions. My bank has even given me free updates to Qucken when the bank changes its software.

Recently FirstUSA was gobbled up by Chase and now I have to initiate the download from the Chase website (rather than just from within Quicken!). I'll dump FirstUSA/Chase if they don't fix this, that is as soon as I find another credit card that works with Quicken and pays 1% back on all purchases.

Kirk

 

[Tadpole]

Thanks, everyone, for your help. I'll try these the next time I do a download.