How do you handle automatic payments for discretionary spending?
I currently have the credit card set up to auto pay up to a fixed amount on a schedule, but the amount it auto pays is based on the last statement balance, not the current balance, so I’m regularly holding a higher balance than I’d prefer when I could afford to pay it off if I don’ t make manual payments as well. The amount of these manual payments is the primary thing I need financial software for, and I do have a spreadsheet for that.
I don’t want to set up autopay from the bank account which doesn’t take into account balance at all, not even statement balance. My discretionary spending can swing by an order of magnitude month to month, so I can’t easily put a steady payment on there and trust it will work out over time either.
Generally if you have auto pay setup for the statement balance is just current period’s spend less any credits.
Thus if you’re tracking by the transaction vs payment, the charges are should be categorized accordingly, and the payment is just a disregarded trans for tracking, but included for total funds/liability.
If the question is how to flatten / straight line your discretion spending over time, on a cash transaction you can’t; you just pay what you spend. on a budgetary process you can take the total and divide over time.
If your manual payments are the difference between the statement and current balance. some bank have the option to select current balance instead of statement balance.
I have all of my credit cards set to auto pay the balance in full each month (statement cycle), but I also have the credit cards attached to Tiller so I see all the spending, discretionary included, as it occurs, and so I don’t budget the payment but the actual spending. The payments are categorized credit card payment on both sides and treated as a transfer. I am not entirely sure what you are asking for as a solution, so I can only offer how I handle my spending.
Right so if I make a manual payment to bring my balance to 0, the next time auto-pay comes up it says statement balance-payments < 0, do not auto bill anything, despite the fact that I’ve made purchases and have a current balance.
Yeah, my banks don’t have the greatest bill pay options I guess.
I see; generally this happen when you pay off sufficient amount for the payment of the current statement. I’m assuming you prefer to have it similar to debit cards with the cash is auto withdrawn, and so long as your bank is comfortable with how many payments you make it’s fine.
to make sure i’m imagining what’s happening correctly:
if you buy $100 on month 1 that statement closes in month 2 and is due month 3;
if you buy $200 on month 2 that statement closes month 3 and is due month 4 (total current balance of $300);
On month 3 you pay the 1 month’s $100 statement and spend $50 (total current balance of $250)
a few days later you decide to pay an additional $200 for the second period; that means in the next auto pay cycle there’s nothing to pay because you’ve already paid it off and the $50 is part of the current cycle that hasn’t closed yet.
So I tried pulling my bill to a different bank. Had to wait for my bill date to test the options. They have the strangest options.
Statement Balance (normal)
Amount Due (Seemed normal until I got to the end.)
Other (normal)
Minimum Balance (?)
Minimum Balance? If they mean Minimum Payment what’s the Amount Due? Is this minimum of Statement and Current? Or is this the statement balance - payments that I get from the credit company side auto pay? I almost have to fund the account and play with it. Nearest help links are useless. The AI chatbot has a clue and the documentation page lists different payment options than I actually have in the interface.
I am at a bit of a loss. On a credit card the amount due and minimum are the total amount of the billing cycle and the minimum due is obviously the lowest amount you can pay. I don’t think I have ever seen it say minimum balance before. I wonder if it is just that particular bank language for minimum due?
So the question is, am I curious enough to start moving significant amounts of money back through an inactive account? My direct deposit stub says yes…
yeah it’s probably just the minimum payment, they could also have a specific APR. but also, does it matter? Ie trying to see what you’re end goal here is to best resolve it
Is there a reason you don’t set up your auto pay through your credit card rather than your bank? I can’t figure out exactly what kind of solution would work best.
I don’t think any bank is going to offer a solution that satisfies a computer programmer. I’d really like to autopay =Min({bank balance}-{configurable margin}, {credit card current balance}) The credit card company doesn’t know the bank balance, so the best it can do is Min({configurable number},{credit card current balance}) The bank could in theory offer this for last statement balance (with the statement balance provided in an e-bill) but they don’t have current balance on the ebill.
Ah I see you don’t want to pay statement balance but actual balance on the day you make a payment. But also have the funds to match in your bank. That is too much math for me. I just pay of the statement balance each month, and it works for my budgeting style.
The math isn’t the hard part for me. I’ve got a formula in my spreadsheet that’s more complex (it uses the monthly projection minimum as well as the configurable margin.) But can’t exactly initiate my own ACH transfers.
I’d really like to autopay =Min({bank balance}-{configurable margin}, {credit card current balance}) The credit card company doesn’t know the bank balance, so the best it can do is Min({configurable number},{credit card current balance}) The bank could in theory offer this for last statement balance (with the statement balance provided in an e-bill) but they don’t have current balance on the ebill.