Categorized Payments to Credit Card Automatically Changing to Transfers

kelgar3457

The category for every credit card payment I make is changed to a transfer.

For example, I've schedule a $50 payment in Simplifi from my bank account to my credit card and set the category as Travel. When the transaction downloads, it automatically changes the category to a Transfer linked to the credit card. I then have to change the transaction back to Travel.

This also throws off my available spending in my spending plan, giving me $50 more to spend. 

I feel like I am having to spend too much time correcting Simplifi. Is there a way to fix this?

Coach Natalie

Hello @kelgar3457,

Thanks for posting your inquiry to the Community!

Since Simplifi is designed to automatically search for and link 'Transfers' (money moving from one account to another), it sounds like this is what you're experiencing. However, if the Category for the associated Recurring Series is set up as "Travel", then linking the transaction to the Reminder should default to the Name and Category used during the Recurring Series setup. With that said, I would definitely suggest making sure to link the corresponding transaction to the Reminder to resolve this matter.

For more details on using Transfers, please see our Support Article here. We also have a Support Article that goes over linking transactions to Reminders available here. 

Please let us know how it goes!

-Coach Natalie

Coach Natalie

Hello @kelgar3457,

Thanks for posting back, although I apologize for the confusion.

Yes, I think what you're experiencing is by design. It sounds like the transaction on the credit card account downloads at a later time, and after the expense transaction is already downloaded and linked to the Reminder. 

I experience something similar with my Credit Card Payments. Although the associated Recurring Series is set to the Category of "Credit Card Payment", Simplifi still identifies the 'Transfer' and automatically links the transactions at the time that the payment (income) side of the transfer downloads into my credit card account. 

I think the problem you may be running up against is the fact that moving money from one account to another is considered a 'Transfer' by Simplifi's standards, so using an Expense Category for it does not align with Simplifi's design. 

Aside from changing the Recurring Series to match the transaction type (a Transfer instead of an Expense), I'm not sure what else to suggest. You may have to continue manually managing this one each month. However, some other users may come along with additional feedback for you. 🤞

Also, as @RobWilk mentioned, you are more than welcome to create an Idea post outlining what specifically you'd like the program to do better or accommodate when it comes to Linked Transfers so other users can vote on it and our Product Team can review it. 

https://community.simplifimoney.com/discussion/998/creating-and-voting-for-ideas-in-the-community

Sorry for not having a better answer!

-Coach Natalie

Flopbot

@kelgar3457, all the others offered great insight into how Simplifi is designed to handle CC payments.  I just wanted to add one more bit of context that I didn’t see addressed above.

With CC’s - as long as the CC is included as one of your accounts in Simplifi, complete with individual transactions being somehow synced - the “categorization“ of what the CC actually purchased occurs at the time of the initial purchase; not the CC payment.

As each individual transaction occurs, that’s when you categorize that $15 was for “Food”, $25 was for “Entertainment”, and $100 was for “Travel”.  Later, when you make the $140 CC payment, that’s when Simplifi is designed to log it as a “Transfer” of money moving from one account to the next.  If you logged it at the time of the CC payment as food, entertainment, and travel, you’d essentially be double counting the money you spend in each category and your Spending Plan would show that you had spent $280 instead of just $140.

kelgar3457

Thanks for your response. I'm not sure I understand your explanation. The recurring series is set up with the category "Travel" and associated with my bank account (e.g., Bank of America) but when Simplifi detects the transaction in the credit card account (e.g., MasterCard), it automatically changes the recurring series transaction from  Travel to Transfer:MasterCard.

Then, because I do not want my credit card showing up in the spending plan (setting is configured to hide the credit card account), it then sets the transaction to invisible and ends up adjusting the spending plan.

RobWilk

My estimation of the response meaning:  What you are seeing is by design, it's not a bug.  However, if you want it to work different you can create an idea post where people vote on it.  "Idea" posts don't get the same priority as bugs.

kelgar3457

Thank you, everyone! I appreciate all the guidance and explanation!

DannyB

Hi @kelgar3457

A bit late to the "party" here, but were you able to make things right as far as your CC payment, and categorizing vs. transfers?  It looks like you got plenty of good feed back but if you have any more questions about this issue don't hesitate to ask.

A couple of questions:

1. Do you use this particular credit card strictly for all your travel expenses?  
2. What is your reason to categorize the CC payment and not the actual charges to the CC?

Even if this CC is strictly used for your travel expenses, I believe it will still make more sense to categorize the actual charges to the CC instead of trying to force Simplifi to accept payments to the CC as an expense.  

You wrote, "Then, because I do not want my credit card showing up in the spending plan (setting is configured to hide the credit card account), it then sets the transaction to invisible and ends up adjusting the spending plan."  

Simplifi will automatically ignore payments to CCs since transfers are neither an income event nor an expense event, but only moving money between your own accounts. By keeping your CC payment as a transfer you will resolve this issue.

For what it's worth, I think of my CCs as "checking accounts" that need routine "deposits" to keep my balance aligned with reality just like a regular checking account needs deposits. The difference is with a checking account the money needs to be in the account before I spend it whereas with a CC the money is paid into the account after I spend it. For me the benefit of using my CC is the cashback rewards which range from 1% - 5%.  Money in my checking account earns .01%.  

Just like writing a check or even using cash or debit card, any spending I do through a CC is categorized appropriately once the expense is incurred as described by Chris. CC payments then are simply transfers i.e. deposits)) I make from a cash account (usually a checking account) to my CC account.

Not sure I added anything to the conversation or if I simply mudded the water... but hey, it's hard for me to keep my mouth shut sometimes.