Credit Card Payments In Monarch Money Budgeting App

UPDATE. SEE MY VIDEO ABOUT GOALS AT 13 MINUTE MARK: When you link transactions to the Credit Card goal, it will move that transaction to be added up in the goal and will NOT add in the category the transaction is related to. For example, if you spent $100 on shopping and you related that transaction to the goal, the budget will show you spent $0 in Shopping category and $100 in the Credit Card Goal. This has actually been annoying for most clients so I don't actually recommend tying ALL Credit Card transactions to the Credit Card goal, just relate the payments you make towards the credit card. Again, if you are trying to pay down a credit card, STOP USING THE CARD so that you can track your goal better and make faster progress.
Credit Card Payments are not intuitive in budgeting apps, so I want to show you the unique way Monarch handles your goal to pay off your credit cards.
If you are paying off your credit cards in full every month, you can skip the second half of the video.
Financial Coaching Note: Making progress on credit cards is SOOO much harder if you are continuing to use the cards regularly. It's just more complicated and discouraging to see progress. I highly suggest not using the card, especially if it has a high interest. You are likely not making enough money in reward points to counteract how much interest you are getting charged every month.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER BY GOING TO MY WEBSITE HERE:
www.evolvingmo...
If you are having trouble creating a budget, setting up your goals, and tracking debt pay-off progress, join one of our workshop series. These small group workshops will be over zoom to get personalized feedback on your budget. Find out more by signing up for the newsletter on my website www.evolvingmo...
In this video, I show you:
02:15 How to categorize your credit card payments
03:17 How credit cards affect your cash flow report
06:06 How to budget extra credit card payments
06:29 Creating the goal in Monarch to pay off the credit card
10:05 Create a rule in Monarch to help you track progress
To learn more about my services, be sure check out my website and sign up for the newsletter here ➡️ www.evolvingmo...
Let's connect on Instagram @evolvingmoney
/ evolvingmoney
Linkedin / taylor-westergard

[@acdnintheusa]

Hi Taylor, Thanks for the Monarch content. It is what ultimately persuaded me to make the move to the application. Question: Similar to credit card payments (i.e. transfers), how are you handling transfers in and out of savings accounts? Use cases: I consider all non-investment accounts as cash accounts (i.e. they're liquid cash that I can access without a potential tax event). We tuck funds away for either rainy day, seasonal expenses, or similar. Monarch is auto-categorizing these transactions all over the place. Thus far, I just re-categorized them as transfers. Many thanks.

[@evolvingmoney]

You are doing that correctly. All movement between savings accounts should just be considered transfers unless it is going to a savings account that is no longer your asset (kids accounts for example).

[@laquitahillie1073]

Hi Taylor, I'm new to Budgeting and rescinded to use Monarch Money. I want to Thank you for your videos and expertise!! They have help me a ton to navigate through the app. I do have a question regarding credit card interest charge, should that show up under income category?

[@pbjtime0]

This was great. I see some kind of bug where if you add multiple credit cards to the rule, it doesn't let you select the goal. But, if you do 1 credit card, then select the goal, then you can add more credit cards to the rule.

[@evolvingmoney]

Yeah, that is a weird bug! I've noticed that too!

[@bill_nj8543]

Thanks for your helpful videos, Taylor! One question: here I think you say that you would categorize both transactions for a credit card payment as 'Credit Card Payment' - that is, both the debit from my checking account and the credit to my credit card account. I asked a similar question to Monarch support re an auto loan payment and they suggested the debit from checking would be 'Auto Loan Payment' and the credit to the loan account a 'Transfer'. I'm thinking the same logic might apply for a credit card payment (the debit a 'Credit Card Payment' and the credit to the card account a 'Transfer'). I'm also actually thinking it might not make any difference - as I think both are not included in Spending (and I don't use Budgeting) - but maybe would affect other reports.

[@evolvingmoney]

"transfer" and "credit card payment" are the exact same, just different names so it doesn't matter. They are both Transfer Categories. Auto Loan is an expense category, so with loans you want them to be labelled as the expense and the receiving green payment of the loan is a transfer because we don't want it to show up in the budget.

[@haliegraham7100]

Thanks for the helpful video!! On YNAB, it'll tell you how much your credit card payment should be. How do we do this on here? How do I know how much I can pay on my CC?

[@evolvingmoney]

I am updating the video for credit cards in Monarch asap (hopefully by next week). The answer isn't easy. YNAB is much better at providing this info. Monarch is difficult when you are still using a credit card and carrying a balance you are working on paying off.

[@LifeWithBethandCourt]

I have this same question 🙋🏻 it’s what’s holding me back from making the switch. We buy almost everything on credit cards and pay almost everything off every month. But there are some months where a big surprise expense hit and we have to carry a balance for a month. Is this the updated video on paying credit cards while using them??

[@paulwilliams6719]

How do you keep track of multiple cards from the same credit card company? For example, I have 2 cards from Chase--one from Amazon and one from United. I get that Monarch tells the difference, but when I'm going through my bank transactions, all it says is "Chase" and I have no idea if it's the Amazon or United one. I've found that if I search for the payment amount, then I can see the money going out of my bank account and going into the right Chase account. But that's a hassle to always have to search when I'm in my bank account. Is there a way (rule?) to identify WHICH Chase card that Credit Card Payment is being applied to?

[@bigchaloopa]

That works 👌. Thank you for explaining.

[@sariyorke1532]

Hi, I just started using Monarch and I really like it. I finally understand , it's not what's in my bank but what I spend vs income. And thanks for including Canadian banks. Much appreciated, But I am confused about credit card. I understand the double dipping part , and I pay off every month, not one payment but many through the month, How do i enter that , in my budget?

[@evolvingmoney]

As long as you pay them off every month in full, you will not put credit card payments into your budget. The $50 spent at walmart goes into the budget, but the $50 to pay off the card you used at walmart would never go to the budget, even if you paid it $25 this week and $25 next week. Does that make sense?

[@markv00]

I appreciate the way you explain the credit card process, but I guess it's just me, I'm still lost on the basic steps. Could you please help me understand the literal steps for correctly categorizing each part of a credit card transaction (multiple cards, not paying in full). Ther cards don't show up in upcoming bills and they're not counted in my expenses for the month, so I get lost about where to account for the payment to each card, what category the payment goes into, and the second part when the cards receive the payment, what category does that go in? So, if I look at my calendar, I want to see that I have this card payment due and how much so I can accurately plan payments for other things properly. I know this may be a basic question, but it just flies right over my head. Thank You so much.

[@evolvingmoney]

Hey Mark! You are not alone! The credit card payment stuff is hard and definitely not basic. I am doing an update on this video very soon to break it down better. In the meantime, you are welcome to schedule a call with me and we could go over your situation in better depth. I am actually looking for volunteers that would be willing to record our Q&A with your Monarch set up so that others can see a better real life example. If this is something you are interested in, feel free to email me!

[@nateparry4124]

Thanks a bunch Taylor for the walk through and insight! I'm curious about what you do with the second transaction of the credit card payment. As you mentioned all credit card payments show two transaction and I can only link the one to the credit card account to the goal. What would I do with that other transaction (connected to my checking account) still being accounted for in my budget line items? Thanks!

[@evolvingmoney]

Hey there! As long categorize it as Credit Card Payment, and that category is under the "Transfer" section (there are three sections in the settings of your categories: Income, Expense, Tranfer), then it won't show up in your budget/cash flow.

[@paigegalfano542]

I recommend meeting with Taylor. She is a Monarch Money "wiz" and knows her way around the program very well.

[@evolvingmoney]

Thank you so much! It was so great meeting you, too!!

[@Rob_Apps]

Hi - recently found your channel. Appreciate all of the helpful videos. Question - what if from an annual perspective I’ve budgeted to pay off a cc, but rather than paying off over 12 months, I decide to “borrow” from other flex categories like clothing at the beginning of the year to pay it off sooner. How do I account for that? Do I assign that unspent clothing category to the cc goal?

[@evolvingmoney]

Yep! Exactly!

[@chrismontesi8064]

Hi Taylor! - First off I'd like to thank you for this great video! I just found your channel, and I can already tell that it will be a tremendous resource! I have one question that is partly related: How do you categorize Apple cash instant deposits? I currently have them categorized as 'other income.' Is this correct? Or am I throwing off my cash flow at the end of year?

[@evolvingmoney]

Hmmm... I am not familiar with what Apple Cash would be considered. Is it income to you? New money that is coming from apple or some other third-party person? Like cash rewards? if so, then you can label those as other income.

[@ramseymellette3169]

Excellent video. Thank you.

[@evolvingmoney]

Glad it was helpful!

[@FlytReel]

This is a great explanation of how to use the goal. But lets complicate things... say you have multiple cards, will it tell you what card gets the extra payment? Like a debt snowball or do you use another spreadsheet\software?

[@evolvingmoney]

I use another calculator to determine debt payment strategy! I highly recommend the Vertex42.com Debt Reduction Calculator to determine which debt gets the extra payments. Then in Monarch you can separate each credit card to it's own goal and set the payments if you wanted to track them all separately!

[@FlytReel]

@@evolvingmoney Awesome! Thanks for the tip. I have the Vertex42 spreadsheet as part of an excel workbook that's becoming a bit of a monster. Trying to use Monarch to replace the excel setup. I was also thinking of using separate credit card goals but wasn't sure if that was a good plan 😅. Now I'll give it try. Thanks for making this much needed content!

[@CassietheK]

Hey Taylor! This is so helpful. I just signed up and linked my accounts but not all my transactions show up. So for example, my phone bill only loads for December, and no historical bills, but for other bills, it shows data going back to June. Am I missing something in my set up?

[@evolvingmoney]

Are the other bills going back through June coming from a different account? Each institution/bank pulls a different amount of historical data. If it is all in the same account, I would suggest reaching out to the support team from Monarch Money and they might be able to solve the problem!

[@jenprovan8474]

So helpful! Thank you.

[@evolvingmoney]

Glad you find the videos helpful!

[@BarbB_in_TN]

Do I link all of my credit cards to the goal and then as you said(I believe) Only Link the credit card payments to the goal as opposed to the payments and all of the other transactions?

[@evolvingmoney]

yes I do believe that is the best way to handle the credit cards in Monarch Money. The only transactions I add to the goal outside of just the CC payments is the interest fees.

[@jimnichols4901]

I am new to Monarch Money. In your credit card payments video at about 3:40, credit card purchases show as an expense. My Visa purchases are imported as a +credit (in green). I've researched and cannot find a fix or how to recategorize. Can you help me? Thank you

[@evolvingmoney]

Are you saying that each purchase you make on your visa card is coming in Green? Like if you buy starbucks, then it's a green (credit) $10 in Monarch? I'd reach out to Monarch support directly if that is the case

[@FriedmanRSmith]

I tried this, but expenses that I connect to my goal don’t show up as subtracting from that budget line item. For example, if I have budgeted $150 budget for my phone and that transaction on my credit card is linked to the goal, it still shows that I have $150 available to spend on that category. If I unlink it, that category shows spent. I don’t understand.

[@evolvingmoney]

Yeah, I made a correction to this in the description of the video and if you watch the Goals video at 12:40 I also explained why connecting all transactions to the goal has that side-affect that I don't love kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYHTl6GaaN6lf7Msi=LIHQDfb9lJPkQNo8

[@FriedmanRSmith]

@@evolvingmoneythanks for the quick reply! I watched the other video. Makes sense now.

[@NaTuRaLliN1kK1]

I agree on discontinuing credit card use, but I have a question. Wouldn’t linking all credit card transactions to the goal result in double counting as well? If I’m using the credit card, couldn’t I just make 1 payment for my expenses that month, not link it to my goal. And a separate payment for any extra I’m paying on the card and link that payment only to the goal. My charges to the card are still reflected under my transactions, and applied to my budget. And my contributions/goal deduction would only reflect additional debt payments.

[@evolvingmoney]

Yes, you are right and that is a totally fine way to do it! That's actually been the way I've been doing it with my clients but I just recently found that attaching everything to the goal still works and doesn't double count in the software. Goal progress and movement doesn't actually affect cash flow/budget it's the transactions themselves that affect it, regardless of being attached to a goal. But it can get a little confusing that way, so your way works great!

[@amyhanses1665]

If an account won't link and you are adding in manual tranactions, can you still link the payments once they show on your transactions with the goal?

[@evolvingmoney]

Yes you can!

[@gaprofitt]

Would it be easier just to exclude credit card accounts in the budget and just setup outflow categories for each credit card you want to budget money for?

[@evolvingmoney]

It can be! If you don't care to track your credit card balance and don't care to categorize specific transactions coming from the cards, you could just put credit card payments as an expense to manage.

[@statonbs]

Hi @evolvingmoney - thanks for all your content! I'm sure I missed this somewhere and am just starting to use Monarch (I used Mint for years). Where do you see your credit card bills, when they're due, etc? For example, you have a Chase credit card, the statement closes, and the payment due along with minimum payment amount etc is due in 30 days. I'm not seeing that information anywhere. Thank you!

[@evolvingmoney]

Hey there! That info is not given to Monarch from the credit card companies. You could manually enter that due date in the recurring calendar. I have a video about the recurring calendar here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJLTfJxpdrtkiJIsi=XI7eKMi2ol5zdSzR

[@justinz1467]

I feel like either I am missing something or goals is not the best way to actually track spending by category or group. Since debt payments have 2 transactions (1 debit and 1 credit) but they are both categorized as the same (credit card payment or auto payment) these offset to 0. So, when I go to my spending report to see by group and category, I know I spent x dollars this month on the auto payment but it's not listed because it reflects as the offset 0. Is there not a way to track the spending of credit card payments or auto payments in the goal setting AND the category/group spending report WITHOUT doubling or effecting the cashflow or actual spent numbers? I feel like the goals are awesome but get int the way of how I actually want to see my spending visually.

[@justinz1467]

3 hrs later I figured out what I needed to do. Only the debit that hits my spending account is categorized as credit card or auto loan. The credit that hits the actual account dir those items needs to be categorized as a transfer. With this finding, I am back to absolutely loving Monarch!!

[@evolvingmoney]

The credit card category is treated the same as a transfer. Both the credit and a debt can be considered a "Credit Card Payment" category because that is just another way to categorize a Transfer. Credit card payments need to be labelled as a transfer in order to avoid double counting the original charge to the credit card and the payment of that charge. For the auto payment you are correct, the debit (black) is labelled as auto payment and the green (credit) is the "transfer".

[@caseyvess41]

How do you handle putting more than the 500 dollars extra a month on the credit card? Example. My goal is say 500, but I work a bunch of overtime and am able to put 1000 dollars to my credit card. how would I account for that in the software?

[@evolvingmoney]

Any extra credit card payments will just need to be adding to your goal amount in your budget! You can change this goal every month so if you usually have $500 as the goal, but know you can do $1000 this month, you can easily change it to $1,000 in the month your are making the extra payment. The Budget column can be updated as much as you need. Does that answer your question?

[@bigboybilz]

Hi Taylor, thanks for the videos! I wondered if you have tips for managing a personal loan from a family member. I wanted to track the loan balance and include it in my net worth so I manually added an account as a loan/liability and connected a goal with it. I make payments through Venmo which of course show as transactions from the connected checking account but don't connect with the new account. To fix this, I manually added transactions to the new account that match the Venmo transactions, connected them to the associated goal, and then categorize both the manually added transactions and the Venmo transactions as Transfers. Does that make sense? Is there a better way to do this? Thanks!

[@evolvingmoney]

Hey there! That actually works just great the way you have it. It is a bit of work to make sure you are adding those transactions in the manual account, but a great way to stay on top of it!

[@JessieS]

So I setup Monarch just the easy parts. The goals section has me a bit confused still, even after watching this video. So I link all my CC to my goal (which in this case is to pay them all off), the additional payment wording is where I am a bit confused. If I have 3 cards: 1. $1500, 2. $5000, 3. $8000 (total) and the minimum payments are 1. $80, 2. $100, 3.125 (if I decide to send Card1: $160, Card2: $200, Card3: $250 ) so my "total additional payments" in this example would be $305? did I get this right and this is what I should enter?

[@evolvingmoney]

Great question, I don't think I explained this well so I am glad you asked! In that case, you will be $610 on your goal to pay off your credit cards. You would combine your minimum payments and extra payment for one amount (not subtract your minimum required payments from total payments.) When I said you would put additional payments as the goal amount, I meant the payment that is in addition to anything you charged the card that month. If I put $100 of amazon purchase on October and had a goal of make $200 of extra payments to bring down the debt, then I'd only be putting $200 on the goal line (even though the total payment would be $100+$200) because the $100 amazon purchase for the month is already budgeted for in my "Shopping" category.

[@JessieS]

@@evolvingmoney thank you! for the explanations, also I just scheduled a session looking forward to your help and guidance.

[@TheKohnSixGregandMichelle]

Hi Taylor How much do you charge for individual help? Thanks! Greg

[@evolvingmoney]

Hey there! Depends on the service you are looking for! For my hour Monarch Money consultations, the pricing can be found when you schedule a call using this link here: calendly.com/d/33k-j44-8b7 For coaching and more in depth financial help, pricing can vary. Feel free to email me to get a quote! www.evolvingmoneycoaching.com

[@joerizzo4726]

I have set monarch for the first time staring in February. How do you handle the first months credit card payment. The payment was for the previous month expenses that are made before using monarch. Also how does Apple Card work. I set it up and don’t see any of the transactions or my apple account. All cards are payed in full each month.

[@evolvingmoney]

If you pay off your credit card in full every month you do not need to do anything in your Budget. You will not create a credit card goal.

[@evolvingmoney]

Apple does not allow Monarch to pull transactions so they would need to be manually entered. You can budget the payment to the apple card, but transactions would have to be uploaded manually.

[@moniquecantone3020]

Hi! I’m still a bit confused in how to categorize these. Let’s say I use a credit card (always paid off monthly) to pay for internet and that’s really the only thing on it. So for that credit card, I have the internet charge to the card (cat: internet), the online payment from checking to that card (cat: CC Payment). Then in my checking account I have the line item of it going to pay the CC (cat: CC payment) I may be overthinking but I don’t feel like that’s correct is it?

[@evolvingmoney]

That is the correct way to do it!

[@natalieepperson5782]

How would you properly handle auto loans and mortgage payments transactions?

[@evolvingmoney]

I would label the payments just as they are, Mortgage and auto payment. If your loan accounts are connected to Monarch and pulling in transaction data, then you will have two transactions for each payment: 1. the money sent from your checking account to pay the loan (black/debit) and 2. the money received to the loan balance (green/credit). I would categorize the 1st as Mortgage or Auto Payment and the 2nd would be labeled as a "transfer". I hope that makes sense. Not everyone will deal with 2 transactions for those payments since not every loan institution will feed Monarch transaction data.

[@michaelcampana3357]

If I mark the 2nd (green) as Transfer, what should I expect to see - how does Monarch deal with transfers?

[@evolvingmoney]

You would not see the transfer show up in cash flow. Transfers don't show up in the budget or as an expense or as income@@michaelcampana3357

[@michaelcampana3357]

Thank you so much for responding. That sounds good, because I was worried about having an inaccurate cash flow. I’ll give it a try!

[@basketts]

For a Credit Card you aren't using but trying to pay off, I noticed the Interest Charge shows up in expenses under Financial Charges. Do you just leave this as a red negative since you aren't actually paying this off at least directly? Or do you categorize the interest as a transfer or something else so you can reconcile to 0? Thanks in advance.

[@evolvingmoney]

Hey! I actually have my clients usually hide interest charges from the budget because it isn't necessarily coming out of cash flow...just adding to the debt.

[@BillHaenel]

@@evolvingmoney However - since those interest charges are included in the goal progress calculation (using the "rule" method suggested in the video that attaches every transaction on a credit card account to the goal), and the goal progress calculation is then used to calculate progress in the budget "Summary" for the month, those interest charges do end up finding their way into your total monthly spend in your budget. Should interest charges not be included in the rule that's used to attach credit card transactions to the goal? This would pull them from the budget, but it would also pull them from goal progress. Seems like a less-than-stellar solution. Any recommendations for coping with this?

[@andreasenfamily]

If I pay off my credit cards every month, is there a good way to do that on this app?

[@evolvingmoney]

If you are paying your credit cards off in full every month, then all you need to do is make sure all credit card payments are categorized as "credit card payments" which is already a category available by default under the transfer sections. You do not need to do anything else. You do not need to set up goals related to this either!

[@andreasenfamily]

Fantastic! I think I set everything up wrong. I tried to do budgets according to paychecks. It shows the balance in the budget but the transactions aren't attaching to the budgets. @@evolvingmoney

[@mikeanderson7962]

I had the same question. Thanks for the answer. LOVE your Monarch vids

[@tedjoyce19]

Does anyone know how to apply a check payment to a loan set up in monarch?

[@evolvingmoney]

Hey there! When you see the check transaction come through, you would assign to "Auto Loan" or "loan repayment" as a category. Or do you mean how to get it to apply to the Loan account so that you balance goes down?

[@tedjoyce19]

@@evolvingmoney Hi there. Thank you for your response. I would like to see when I make a payment from a checking account to a credit card that the check payment shows up on the register for the credit card. And then I can reconcile the credit card and checking account transactions at the end of the month. It seems that I can't link transactions between accounts. thank you for your help!

[@chaumeisterlee6155]

Slow down.