Possible Solutions to My Credit Card Tracking Problem
I wrote previously about having hit “credit card overload” (having one too many cards to easily keep track of) but I didn’t do a very good job of explaining what my actual problem was with them.
So first, a little bit about what my problem isn’t: I don’t have a problem (anymore) with budgeting, or with paying my cards off in full each month before they are due. And I don’t have a problem with using the right card at the right time, although I used to. (That problem was solved by making all of the cards look different; in one case by putting a sticker on one of the two debit cards that looked the same.)
My problem is in actually recording the transactions to the correct accounts after I have made them. I have my credit cards set up like checking accounts in Quicken, and of course I have my actual checking accounts set up in Quicken as well.
What happened was that at least couple of times per month I would look at a receipt as I was entering it, notice that I’d used my Visa, and enter the transaction in what I thought was the right account. But, with 4 Visas (two debit, two credit) I was easily confused. I found it hard to remember the last 4 digits of each of them so that I could be sure I entered the transaction in the correct account. And even when I sat there and looked at the cards, I’d sometimes still get it wrong.
This is pretty consistent with the rest of my life — I have to triple check all details all of the time, and I still mess things up on a fairly regular basis. It’s just how it is, and I’ve learned to adapt, mostly. My biggest adaptation is acknowledging that that is something I have to pay attention to, and trying to develop systems to make it harder for me to mess up.
So after defining my problem a little more clearly, I’ve come up with a couple of possible solutions. The first one is that I’m going to modify the name of the accounts in Quicken to include the last 4 digits on the credit cards. If that isn’t enough by itself, I’m going to start writing the name of the account on the receipt when I buy something (whenever possible). This name will match up with the name that’s listed on the account in Quicken.
Both of those changes should make it easier to compare and contrast, and hopefully cut down on the annoying little errors.
I feel for you. I’m pretty much the same. A tad too loose-headed and not paying enough attention to small details like that. I’d end up adding amounts to wrong accounts even though they could not be more different, only to notice after adding 5 or 6 of them what I’m actually doing. :)
Another fail safe check you could consider is to add the last four digits to every transaction line (right in the beginning) as well. That way, an added transaction with incorrect digits will stand out like a sore thumb in the list of recent transactions straight away.
The major disadvantage would be that all transactions will somehow look the same until you read past the first 5 or 6 characters…
Do you use the automatic download for these accounts?
I too have many accounts in Quicken:
CU checking
CU Savings
Online savings (Four accounts)
LLC checking
9 different investment accounts
I found that if I use the automatic download of all transactions except for my CU checking and savings, I have much less confusion. I also save all my receipts and make sure I match them up to what was downloaded. The only headaches I get are related to a lost receipt (thanks wife, sometimes me) or when I reconcile the CU accounts and find a missing transaction or two.
Are you suing the automatic downloads? If not, why?
a.nonymous, thanks for the additional idea :)
Clint, no, I don’t use the automatic download. Not sure why, I guess I just prefer to do it manually.
Give automatic downloads a try. You might be very surprised on how much time and hassle it will save you. Plus it is free!