Checking accounts, credit card accounts, and other accounts that you have to dig into on a regular basis are good candidates for “favorite”
status. The names of favorite accounts appear on the Favorites menu. All you have to do to open a favorite account is choose Favorites➪
Favorite Accounts and the name of the account.
As Chapter 2 explains, you can also make your
“favorite” accounts appear on the Home Page so that account balances stare you in the face, for good or ill, whenever you start Money. By clicking an account name on the Home Page, you can view the account’s register and enter transactions.
Follow these instructions to make an account a favorite account:
Right-click an account name in the Accounts List window and choose Favorite (click the Account List button to open the Accounts window).
Choose Favorites➪Organize Favorites➪
Accounts and, in the Select Your Favorite Accounts window, check the names of accounts.
Select the Favorite Account check box in the Change Account Settings window.
Account link, select the Other Account Type option, and click the Next button. You come to the Choose an Account Type window (refer to Figure 3-3).
3. Select the Credit Card, Line of Credit, or Home Equity Line of Credit option and click the Next button.
If you are setting up a line of credit account, you see the Choose Level of Detail window. Make sure that the Track Transactions and Other Details option is selected. Unless you select this option, you can’t categorize charges you make against the line of credit.
4. Enter a name for the account and click the Next button.
You see the first of several New Account dialog boxes, as shown in Figure 3-5. The first dialog box asks how much you owe. I hope that you are all paid up and owe nothing, but if you resemble the average citizen, you owe the bank or credit card issuer some money.
5. Type 0if the credit card is paid in full; otherwise, type how much your last statement says that you owe and then click the Next button.
6. Select the Credit Card or Charge Card option and click the Next button.
This dialog box asks whether your account will track a credit card or charge card. As the dialog box explains, charge cards have to be paid in full each month, but you can carry debt from month to month with a credit card.
Select the Credit Card option if the account tracks credit card spending.
Otherwise, select Charge Card. If yours is a credit card that you don’t need to pay in full but you intend to pay off each month, select the Always Pay Entire Balance Each Month check box.
Figure 3-5:
In this dialog box, tell Money how much you owe the bank or credit card issuer.
What happens next depends on whether the account tracks a credit card or charge card.
If the account tracks a charge card, skip ahead to Step 8.
If the account tracks a credit card or line of credit, the dialog box that appears asks you to list the interest rate you get charged for carrying debt, as Figure 3-6 shows.
7. Tell Money what rate of interest you are charged for using the credit card or line of credit, and then click the Next button.
List the interest rate in the first % box. If the rate is a temporary, intro-ductory rate, select the An Introintro-ductory Rate Is in Effect check box and enter the permanent rate and the date that the temporary rate expires.
Money needs this information for the Debt Reduction Planner and other features designed to help you manage debt.
8. In the dialog box that follows, type the maximum amount that you can charge on your credit card or charge card; then click the Next button.
Your credit card statement lists the most you can borrow on your credit card. Get the figure from your statement.
9. Make sure that the first option, No, Don’t AutoBalance This Account, is selected and then click the Next button.
This dialog box is kind of misleading. It seems to say that if you pay your credit card bill in full each month, you should select the second option, Yes, AutoBalance This Account. But you should do no such thing. Select the second option button only if you don’twant to track the charges you run up on your credit card.
10. If you want the bill to appear in the Bills Summary window, make sure that you click the Yes, Remind Me When the Bill Is Due check box. Enter an estimate of how much you owe in the Estimated Monthly Figure 3-6:
Enter the interest rate you get charged for carrying debt on a credit card.
Then click the Next button.
As shown in Figure 3-7, the dialog box asks whether you want to put the monthly credit card payment on the Bill Calendar. If you click Yes, a reminder to pay the bill appears in the Bill Summary window. Chapter 12 explains how to schedule bills and deposits. For now, all you need to know is that the Bills Summary window reminds you when bills are due.
If you want, the notice can also appear on the Home Page, where you can see it each time you start Money.
I strongly recommend placing a check mark in the Yes, Remind Me When the Bill Is Due check box. Credit cards and lines of credit can get very, very expensive if you don’t work to pay them off or if you forget to pay them on time. Banks charge outrageous interest rates on lines of credit and credit cards. A reminder to pay the bill can help keep you from being squeezed by creditors.
Credit card and line of credit bills fall due on the same day each month.
Each month, Money reminds you five days before each payment is due.
11. Click the Next button in the following dialog box, which asks whether you can earn frequent flyer miles with your credit or charge card.
Chapter 12 explains how to track frequent flyer miles. Don’t worry about it for now.
12. Click the Finish button.
You return to the Account List window.
After you set up your credit card account, go to the Change Account Settings window and enter the phone number of the credit card issuer or bank. You may need the number, for example, if you must report a lost credit card. The section “Listing contact names, phone numbers, and other information,” ear-lier in this chapter, explains how the Change Account Settings window works.
Figure 3-7: