As long as I get notice in advance, I prefer letting their system do it.
I'll investigate. Thanks.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL


"Mark Horn" <mark[at]hornclan.com> wrote in message
news:slrnd3c1rd.q21.mark[at]home.hornclan.com...
- quote -

On 2005-03-13, Art McClinton <art[at]nova.org> wrote:
- quote -

You know, I remember getting something like that on a piece of
paper, too. I didn't sign up for it b/c I don't like auto bill pay.
But it may very well be available if you do. You could certainly
call to ask.

I am using it. I get notified the amount that will be deducted 25 days
before it is automatically deducted. I am not certain if I signed up on
the web or via a offer in my paper bill but they have it. I know that I
will pay it off and have an over draft protection on my checking account
just in case.



Mark Horn wrote:
- quote -

Where I'm notified well in advance of the amount, I prefer they just draft
my account.

Years ago I lived in Houston and the local gas company offered an automatic
draft. It was /instead of/ getting a bill, so you had no clue what the bill
was until it was taken out of your account. I didn't trust them not to make
billing errors that much, and passed on the opportunity.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL


"Mark Horn" <mark[at]hornclan.com> wrote in message
news:slrnd325di.sp6.mark[at]home.hornclan.com...
- quote -

On 2005-03-11, Chris Cowles <NoSpam[at]For.me> wrote:
- quote -

From what I can tell from their site, the answer is no. But they do
something called "click to pay". Essentially, you link it to your
checking or savings account. Then when you want to pay your bill,
you just go to their website and pay it. As long as you get it in
before 1pm on any given day, it will be credited on the same day.

This is what I use and it's incredibly easy.

As much as I like transaction downloading, I don't like automatic
bill payment. I use electronic bill payment, but I don't like
those payments to be automatically deducted. I'd rather manage
it manually.

$.02

I use it on two of my three Citibank accounts. It is available on My
Citibank Drivers Edge card and my ATT Universal Card (now Citibank) they
bill my BoA checking account on the last day of the grace period. My
Citibank Corporate Diners Card however does not have such a method of
pay off. I just use the free BoA bill pay to pay it.

Art

Chris Cowles wrote:
- quote -

Does Citibank have an auto-debit service to pay off the balance every month,
less interim credits, from your designated checking account?

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Horn
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.money
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 9:46 PM
Subject: Re: Tracking cash?

(1) http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/car...plat/index.jsp

It works for me--your tolerance for entering small transactions will offset
your desire to understand where the money disappears at a level that works
for you.

"Mark Horn" <mark[at]hornclan.com> wrote in message
news:slrnd2sp53.e8v.mark[at]home.hornclan.com...
- quote -

On 2005-03-08, Dick Watson <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote:
- quote -

I like this. Thanks for the tips.

On 2005-03-09, Chris Cowles <NoSpam[at]For.me> wrote:
- quote -

I already know that my cash expenditures per month are small (less
than 1% of my total spending) but I'm still curious to know what
I spend my cash on. I have a general idea, but I'd like it backed
up by data.

- quote -

Yup. I do that already and pay it off every month. I even
get paid to use the card (1). So I use it as much as possible.
Of course, for those who are reading this and have a tendancy to
carry a balance, you can get the same data by using a debit card
instead of a credit card. You'll still be able to download all
the transactions and you won't be able to carry a balance.

(1) http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/car...plat/index.jsp

Your description of 'how' is correct, ie, using a cash account. Since you
seem interested in information gathering, I suggest you proceed, if only for
a sample period. You'll probably find that, compared to your overall
expenses, the unidentified cash expenses may be a relatively small
proportion that doesn't justify the extra effort.

One way to reduce the unidentified expenses is to use a credit card more,
assuming you pay it off monthly. Find a card that supports direct statements
with Money, without need for Yodlee. Use it consistently and download the
transactions. Your bookkeeping efforts will be minimal and could result in a
significant improvement in data quality.

I use my credit card as much as possible, with consideration given to small
business owners that have to bear the transaction fees. With POS terminals
at every cash register, it's pretty easy. Just don't get into a trap of
carrying a balance.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL


"Mark Horn" <mark[at]hornclan.com> wrote in message
news:slrnd2rrbi.bq4.mark[at]home.hornclan.com...
- quote -

I think you are overworking the problem re. Budget.

Setup the Cash Account with the expectation that it lasts forever. Transfer
the cash into it. Record transactions as the mood suits you. After three or
four months, Balance the cash account to the money in your pocket. Write off
the difference as Miscellaneous or similar. Budget that difference based on
what your tolerance for "leakage" is. If you think you are writing too much
off, collect more receipts. If collecting/entering the data gets burdensome,
write more off.

"Mark Horn" <mark[at]hornclan.com> wrote in message
news:slrnd2rrbi.bq4.mark[at]home.hornclan.com...
- quote -

Mark,

I use the Cash Account approach. I changed my 'process' Jan 1 and
started placing receipts in an envelope and periodically go though it.
If the receipt is not detailed enough, I write a description on the
back. I am not 100% on this - but close enough.

Prior to this I was recording it to Miscellaneous (like Cash Witdrawal)
and it would literally add up to several thousand dollars per year -
unidentifable (unless guessing).

Doing this has helped me better identifying items that I spend cash for
(some groceries, mass transit, parking, movie tickets, dining out,
etc.).

I will add - I don't use the budget feature - I get enought data from
other reports to tell how I am doing. I don't want to get throught
this additional step....



Mark Horn wrote:
- quote -

I have a question for those of you who track cash spending.
I don't currently do this, but I'm thinking of starting. Right now,
I simply have a small amount of money that I remove from the ATM
every month and it gets put into the "Cash Withdrawal" category.
But I'd like to see if there are any patterns to my cash spending
that I'm unaware of. This means I need to track it.

The way I plan to do this is to create a cash account, transfer money
into that account, and then track individual expenses in the account.
This means, of course, that I'll have to keep receipts and do things
like that.

But I'm not sure that I'm ready to commit to doing this. So I was
planning on making the cash account an "out of budget" account.
That way if I don't like it, I can go back to what I was doing
without much impact.

But that introduces a problem. Now instead of all my ATM
transactions being categorized as "Cash Withdrawal", they'll show
up as "transfer out of budget account". Which will result in one
budget category (cash) being lower than expected, and another budget
category (transfer out) being higher than expected.

I could make the ATM transaction a withdrawal and then categorize
it as cash. But then, when create the "receive" transaction in
the cash category, it'll look like income. At the end of the year,
money will think that my income is higher by the same amount as I
have categorized for cash.

One way I might resolve this is to just keep it as a transfer.
If, after a while, I like tracking all of my cash spending,
I'll just put the account "in budget". If I don't like it, I'll
just delete the account. Then I'll have to re-categorize all the
transactions that show up as "xfer to deleted acct". They'll become
"Cash Withdrawal" and that should get me back to where I am now.

Thoughts? Tips? Critiques?

TIA.