Credit Cards
Credit cards are modeled as debt accounts. Alto tracks your credit card spending through your expense categories while showing payment activity in the budget sidebar.
Key ideas
- Credit card balances are inverted compared to cash accounts: outflows increase the balance (you owe more), inflows decrease it.
- Categorized credit card spending reduces the category's available balance, just like spending from a checking account.
- Payments are entered as transfers from a cash account to the credit card. The cash side is categorized to the card's payment category.
- All credit card inflows (payments, refunds) are treated as "paid" transactions that reduce your balance.
Credit card payment categories
When you add a credit card account, Alto automatically creates a corresponding expense category for tracking payments to that card.
- Auto-created: Created automatically when you add a credit card account.
- Tied to the account: The category is linked to the credit card and cannot be deleted separately.
- Hidden when paid off: If the credit card balance is $0, the payment category is hidden from the budget view.
- Payment tracking: When you make a transfer from a cash account to the credit card, the cash side is categorized here.
Balance change rules
outflow→ balance increases (you owe more)inflow→ balance decreases (you owe less)
Credit cards in the budget sidebar
Credit cards appear in the right sidebar under the Accounts section. For each card, you'll see:
- Balance: The total amount you owe on the card (does not change based on the viewing period).
- Spent: How much you've spent on the card during the current pay period.
- Paid: How much you've paid toward the card during the current pay period.
Credit card account settings
Credit card accounts can store additional metadata to help you manage your cards:
- Payment due day (1–31): The day of the month when your payment is due.
- Minimum payment: Your minimum required payment amount.
- Credit limit: The total credit limit on the card.
- Interest rate: The APR on the card.
Making payments
The recommended way to record a credit card payment is to create a transfer from your checking account to the credit card.
- The checking account balance decreases (outflow).
- The credit card balance decreases (inflow = you owe less).
- The cash side of the transfer is categorized to the credit card's payment category.
- The credit card side shows as a "paid" transaction.
Refunds and credits
Refunds, credits, and other inflows on your credit card are all treated the same way: they show as "paid" transactions that reduce your balance.
Filtering credit cards
In the budget sidebar, you can filter which credit cards are displayed:
- With Balance: Shows only cards that have a balance, available funds, or assigned amounts.
- All Cards: Shows all credit card accounts.