diff --git a/.github/actions/spelling/expect.txt b/.github/actions/spelling/expect.txt
index b9a26f779..2f6692d16 100644
--- a/.github/actions/spelling/expect.txt
+++ b/.github/actions/spelling/expect.txt
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ Caixa
CAMT
cashflow
cimode
+Citi
+Citibank
Cloudflare
CMCIFRPAXXX
COBADEFF
diff --git a/docs-sidebar.js b/docs-sidebar.js
index 96d641376..476f827f4 100644
--- a/docs-sidebar.js
+++ b/docs-sidebar.js
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ const sidebars = {
type: 'doc',
id: 'budgeting/credit-cards/index',
},
- items: ['budgeting/credit-cards/carrying-debt'],
+ items: ['budgeting/credit-cards/paying-in-full', 'budgeting/credit-cards/carrying-debt'],
},
'budgeting/multi-currency',
'budgeting/joint-accounts',
diff --git a/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/carrying-debt.md b/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/carrying-debt.md
index 9ad9a2979..a41033a2e 100644
--- a/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/carrying-debt.md
+++ b/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/carrying-debt.md
@@ -1,9 +1,196 @@
# Carrying Debt
-Carrying debt on a credit card refers to the situation where you have an outstanding negative balance on the card and do not have the money set aside for paying it off in full when the next bill arrives. We highly recommend that you do _not_ do this for any new spending as it becomes super easy to accidentally fall into deeper debt. Instead, we recommend that you follow the [Within the Budget](./index.md) strategy for any new credit card purchases. But in case you're already carrying a negative balance on a credit card, this page will outline how to safely manage the debt without having to worry about going into more debt.
+When you have an outstanding negative balance that you are unable to pay in full you are "carrying debt". We highly recommend that you do _not_ do this for any new spending as it becomes super easy to accidentally fall deeper into debt. Instead, we recommend that you follow the [Within the Budget](./index.md) strategy for any new credit card purchases. In case you're already carrying a negative balance on a credit card, this page will outline how to safely manage the debt without having to worry about going into more debt.
-If you have an existing credit card debt that you need to track and gradually pay off then it's very important that any new purchases you make with the credit card are pre-funded following the [Within the Budget](./index.md) strategy as there is no point in paying off 100 extra on the credit card if you will then have to put another -100 on the card to pay for groceries the week after. Instead you should prioritize making sure that your actual expense categories are funded before allocating money to paying down the debt, which will allow you to ensure that you're paying it off in a sustainable manner without accidentally incurring more of it over time.
+Always prioritize that your actual expense categories are funded before allocating money to paying down the debt. This will allow you to ensure that you're paying it off in a sustainable manner without accidentally incurring more of it over time.
-The simplest way to track preexisting credit card debt in Actual is to create a **Credit Card** category and set it to **Rollover overspending**. When you add your existing starting balance and any preexisting transactions to your credit card account you need to ensure that the category of those transactions is set to **Credit Card**. That way you can at any time look at the **Credit Card** category balance to see the status of your preexisting debt, and you can ensure that it's getting smaller over time.
+:::note
+
+To make it easier to follow along, the examples with screenshots are at the end.
+
+This step-by-step guide is based on entering transactions manually and clearing and reconciling accounts from a monthly statement. It's too easy to spend aimlessly when you sync all your purchases. Manual entry and reconciliation keeps you in touch with your spending and associated accounts. When you have paid off your debt, you can link up your card(s) and reconcile from a bank sync.
+
+:::
+
+## Let's Pay Off that Debt!
+
+Before we get started, check the settings for your Credit Card accounts to make it easy to see everything that's going on and we are on the same page:
+- Using the 3-dot menu on the right of the account page, choose the following:
+ - Show running balance
+ - Show "cleared" checkboxes
+ - Show reconciled transactions
+
+ 
+- Check that the _pills_ showing "Cleared total" and "Uncleared total" are showing under the account name.
+ - To show the pills, hover over the account balance under the account name and press the expand >> arrows.
+
+ 
+
+ 
+
+
+
+- When we use the "Uncleared total" or account "Balance" from Actual we will use the absolute value, the positive value without the (-) sign. So, if Actual shows "Uncleared total: -2553.86", then we will use 2553.86.
+- For our purposes here, we will be paying the credit card from a checking account.
+- While you are paying off your credit card(s), it is best to use a debit card or cash. If that is not possible, and you have a card with no debt, use that one to make new purchases so you can pay it in full every month using [Paying in Full - Within the Budget](./paying-in-full.md) and work to pay off another. In any case, use _**only one credit card**_ for new purchases and pay off the one with the highest interest first.
+- We recommend doing this On Budget. If you will not use the card again after it's completely paid off and you have received a statement with a $0 balance, you can [close](/docs/accounts/index.md#closing-or-deleting-an-account) the account.
+
+### Setting Up Actual Budget for Credit Card Debt
+
+- Create a **Credit Card Debt** Category Group
+- Create a separate **Bank Card Debt** category in the group for each card carrying debt. Set them all to _Rollover Overspending_. In our example below, we used **Citi Card Debt** and **DEMO Card Debt**.
+ - To set _Rollover Overspending_, click on the category's Balance and choose it. A little arrow will now show next to the Balance. When you are rolling over overspending, the negative Budget Balance won't be reflected in your "To Budget" amount. Negative credit card account balances are already subtracted from your "Available funds" On Budget, we don't want to subtract them twice!
+- For each credit card account, input a starting balance equal to the **total** amount owed. Include all transactions to date, as if you wanted to close the account. This starting balance goes in the "Payment" column. Change the category on this starting balance to **Bank Card Debt**.
+- Remember, categorize _any_ purchase that will not be paid for at the next statement as **Bank Card Debt** as it will add to the outstanding debt.
+
+:::note
+
+If you have been paying the statement balance in full every month, but need to incur debt for an emergency purchase enter the transaction normally, but categorize it as **Bank Card Debt**. Use the note field for a note or tag as to why. You can even use a split transaction if you only need to incur debt on part of the purchase!
+
+:::
+
+### Monthly Workflow
+
+#### All Cards with Debt
+- You must make Minimum Payments.
+- Credit card banks calculate the Minimum Payment by adding 1-3% of the Statement Balance to the Interest & Fees. As you can see, paying only the minimum can mean staying in debt for many years!
+- At the beginning of the month, assign the expected Minimum Payment amount to the **Budgeted** column for each **Bank Card Debt** category. One easy way to calculate the Minimum Payment is to use the one from the last statement.
+- Each month when you do your budgeting, _after_ you've accounted for all necessary expense categories, _including_ the minimum payments on each credit card in the **Credit Card Debt** Group, you can add extra to the credit card you want to pay off. Choose to pay off the card with the highest interest rate first. In the **Budgeted** column, **Add** the extra amount to the Minimum Payment you assigned earlier. For example, if your expected Minimum Payment is $113.23 and you want to pay an extra $100, change your **Budgeted** column to 213.23 for that card debt category.
+
+#### Cards with Original Debt and No New Purchases {#debt-no-new}
+- If you are _not_ paying off the debt on this card:
+ - When your statement arrives, create the Interest & Fees transaction in the Credit Card account and categorize it to **Bank Card Debt**.
+ - [Reconcile](/docs/accounts/reconciliation.md) your account.
+ - Make sure the amount in the **Budgeted** column for **Bank Card Debt** is at least the statement Minimum Payment. If you need to add to it to reach the Minimum Payment, _cover_ any overspending by transferring from another category with a positive balance.
+ - Use _Make Transfer_ to transfer the amount in the **Budgeted** column from your Checking account to the Credit Card account. Send that amount to the Credit Card Bank to pay your bill.
+- If you _are_ paying off the debt:
+ - When your statement arrives, create the Interest & Fees transaction in the Credit Card account and categorize it to **Bank Card Debt**.
+ - [Reconcile](/docs/accounts/reconciliation.md) your account.
+ - Make sure the amount in the **Budgeted** category is higher than the statement Minimum Payment. One day your Minimum Payment will pay off the card completely! Happy Day!
+ - Use _Make Transfer_ to transfer the amount in the **Budgeted** column from your Checking account to the Credit Card account. Send that amount to the Credit Card Bank to pay your bill.
+
+#### Cards with New Purchases and Original Debt - Following the [Paying in Full - Within the Budget](./paying-in-full.md) Strategy {#debt-with-new}
+- During the month, enter your New Purchases and Return Credits as they occur. Categorize them to a Budget category that has a positive Balance, "Groceries", "Clothes", "Transit", etc.
+- When your statement arrives, find the following information:
+ - New Balance, Minimum Payment, Interest & Fees, Returns/Credits and New Purchases. We will use this information to reconcile and calculate your payment.
+ - In the Credit Card account, create a transaction for Interest & Fees and categorize it to **Bank Card Debt**.
+ - [Reconcile](/docs/accounts/reconciliation.md) the account. Clear each and every transaction with your statement, including the Interest & Fees and Return Credits. Fix any problems before you move on. We do not advocate using a Reconciliation Transaction to fix any problems, especially when you are carrying debt. Before you "complete" the reconciliation, you can add up your cleared purchases and make sure the sum matches the "New Purchases" amount from your statement. The first month will be the most difficult - it will get easier!
+- Looking at your statement, the very least amount you need to pay to not increase your debt is the Interest & Fees and your New Purchases minus the Return Credits. Remember, you accounted for and funded the interest at the beginning of the month when you budgeted for the expected Minimum Payment and you were setting aside funds to pay for New Purchases each time you categorized them! You can pay for them all without worry.
+ - If you are _not_ paying off any original debt on this card, make sure the **Budgeted** column is at least the Minimum Payment. The Minimum Payment you budgeted for at the beginning of the month should have this covered. If the Minimum Payment is more than you expected due to Interest or Fees, add an amount to the **Budgeted** column to equal the statement Minimum Payment. _Cover_ any additions to the **Budgeted** amount by transferring from another category with a positive balance.
+ - If you _are_ paying off the debt on this card, make sure the current **Budgeted** column is more than the Minimum Payment. It should be at least the sum of the Interest & Fees plus the extra amount you want to pay off, but it will probably be a bit more and that's OK!
+- Now let's calculate your payment.
+ - Your payment is the sum of the New Purchases from your statement (minus any return credits) plus the "Uncleared total" from Actual plus the amount in the **Budgeted** column of **Bank Card Debt**.
+ - This is the same as the difference between the Account Balance in Actual and the Category Balance of **Bank Card Debt**.
+
+ :::warning
+If the calculated payment is less than the statement Minimum Payment, you _**must**_ make the statement Minimum Payment! In this rare case, add an amount to the **Budgeted** column so your resulting payment adds up to at least the statement Minimum Payment. _Cover_ any additions to the **Budgeted** amount by transferring from another category with a positive balance.
+:::
+
+- Use _Make Transfer_ to transfer the calculated amount from your Checking account to the Credit Card account. Send that amount to the Credit Card Bank to pay your bill.
+
+One day you won't need to add any extra to pay the credit card bill in full! Happy Day! Keep on paying at least your statement balance every month and soon you will gain back your Grace Period and stop accruing interest on new purchases! Follow the [Paying in Full - Within the Budget](./paying-in-full.md) strategy and you will never carry debt or pay credit card interest again.
+
+### Examples:
+
+At he beginning of July we budget for the expected Minimum Payments as part of our necessary expenses. After all of our expenses are accounted for, we have $202.29 leftover and we decide to add $200 extra to our Citibank Credit Card. We add $200 to our $90 expected Minimum Payment. The $2.29 we Hold for next Month.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+During July we spend using the [Paying in Full - Within the Budget](./paying-in-full.md) strategy. We use the DEMO Credit Card for some of our purchases. We are not spending using the Citibank Card.
+
+The Citibank Statement arrives. We need the following information from the summary:
+
+**Citibank Account Summary**
+
+- Previous Balance: $2,590.00
+- Payments Received: $90.00
+- New Purchases: $0.00
+- Cash Advances: $0.00
+- Fees Charged: $0.00
+- Interest Charged: $64.00
+- New Balance: $2564.00
+- Minimum Payment Due: $90.00
+
+Following [Cards with Debt and No New Purchases](#debt-no-new) we enter a transaction into the Citibank account for the Interest & Fees and categorize it to **Citi Card Debt**. We reconcile the account, agreeing with Citibank that our New Balance is $2564.00.
+
+
+
+
+
+Our **Budgeted** amount of 290.00 is larger than the Minimum Payment of $90.00, so we send Citibank $290.00 and use _Make Transfer_ to transfer that amount from the Checking account we used to pay the bill.
+
+You may notice that the Citibank Balance matches the **Citi Card Debt** Balance. The Interest & Fees we added to the debt were canceled by our **Budgeted** amount that included them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+On the 1st of August we set our budget and start with our Minimum Payments of $90 for the Citibank card and $50 for the DEMO card. After we funded all of our necessary expenses we added an extra $200 payment for the DEMO card this month.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+In August we receive our DEMO Card statement and we need the following from the account summary:
+
+ **DEMO Account Summary**
+
+- Previous Balance: $1,235.50
+- Payments Received: $50.00
+- New Purchases: $846.11
+- Cash Advances: $0.00
+- Fees Charged: $0.00
+- Interest Charged: $32.75
+- New Balance: $2,064.36
+- Minimum Payment Due: $50.00
+
+We'll follow [Cards with New Purchases and Original Debt](#debt-with-new) above to calculate our payment.
+
+First, we'll enter the Interest & Fees transaction of $32.75, categorize it to **DEMO Card Debt** and start to reconcile our account. When our cleared transactions match the statement New Balance, our DEMO account looks like this:
+
+
+
+
+
+Our cleared new purchases add up to $846.11 and match our statement, so we're good to go! Before we complete the Reconciliation, let's calculate our payment for this month.
+- We have added some extra to pay down our debt this month, so our **Budgeted** column of 250.00 on **DEMO Card Debt** is definitely greater than either the Minimum Payment or the Interest & Fees of $32.75.
+- So, the numbers we need are:
+ - New Purchases (statement): $846.11
+ - Return credits (statement): $0.00
+ - Uncleared total (Actual): $126.60 (Remember to use the absolute, positive, value)
+ - Budgeted column (Actual): $250.00
+- Our payment calculation is:
+
New Purchases - Return credits + Uncleared total + Budgeted column, or
+
846.11 - 0.00 + 126.60 + 250.00 = 1222.71
+
OR
+
The difference between the Account Balance of -2190.96 and the Category Balance of -968.25 (2190.96 - 968.25 = 1222.71)
+- We send DEMO Bank $1,222.71 and use _Make Transfer_ to transfer that amount from the Checking account we used to pay the bill. Our DEMO Account now looks like this:
+
+
+
+
+
+We complete the Reconciliation and we are done with this account!
+
+For our Citibank card this month we'll pay the **Budgeted** expected Minimum Payment of $90.00.
+
+
+
+
+
+We have reduced our original debt to DEMO Bank to $968.25 and Citibank to $2,247.00. You can notice that for this snapshot in time, our credit card balances match our outstanding debt in the Budget.
+
+
+
+
+
+We'll continue to spend _Within the Budget_, choosing a category with a positive Balance for each expenditure.
-Each month when you do your budgeting, _after_ you've accounted for all other necessary expense categories, you allocate however much you want to pay down on that debt into the **Budgeted** column of the **Credit Card** category. Then when you go to pay your credit card bill you can easily find out how much you should actually pay by taking the **Credit Card** account balance and turning it positive and then adding the current **Credit Card** category balance to it. If your account balance is $ -5,500 and your category balance is $ -4,500 then you know that you need to pay off 5500 - 4500 = 1000. This amount will be greater than what you had put into the **Budgeted** column in case you're simultaneously following the [Within the Budget](./index.md) strategy of pre-funding new credit card purchases, and you can without worries pay off the calculated amount knowing that the money has already been explicitly set aside for this specific bill.
diff --git a/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/index.md b/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/index.md
index 1793e9ff9..6815d003c 100644
--- a/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/index.md
+++ b/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/index.md
@@ -1,59 +1,56 @@
-# Managing Credit Cards
+# Credit Cards and Actual Budget
-Using a credit card in any budgeting software can be confusing, and Actual is no different. Of all the questions that are asked about budgeting, credit card usage is near the top of the list so don't feel bad if you're a little confused.
+Using a credit card in any budgeting software can be confusing, and Actual is no different. Of all the questions that are asked about budgeting, credit card usage is near the top of the list so don't feel bad if you're a little confused.
-On this page we will walk you through how to manage a credit card "within the budget" which is the strategy of using a credit card that we highly recommend that you follow. If you already have a preexisting credit card balance that you haven't budgeted for then we also have you covered, see the [Carrying Debt](./carrying-debt.md) page to find out how to track this debt in a safe and sustainable manner, and try to follow what we describe down below for any future credit card purchases.
+:::note
+Any Revolving Credit Account that has both purchases and payments in any month should be treated as a credit card, not as a loan. Use [Carrying Debt](./carrying-debt.md) if the balance is not paid off every month.
+:::
-Using a credit card within the budget means that for every purchase you make on the credit card, the transaction is added to Actual with a category for which money was already set aside. This means that as long as you do not overspend in any category you're not incurring any more debt and are able to pay the credit card bill in full whenever it arrives.
+:::warning
+We recommend that you place all your credit card accounts **On Budget**. You can [close](/docs/accounts/index.md#closing-or-deleting-an-account) an On Budget account when you are through with it (and reopen, if necessary) but you **cannot** change an Off Budget account to On Budget! _Only_ set a credit card account to Off Budget and treat it as a loan if there will be _no_ new purchases and the account will be closed once it's paid off.
+:::
+If you pay off your credit card statement every month, then you will want to use the [Paying in Full](./paying-in-full.md) page to understand how Actual helps you work with your credit card to stay _Within the Budget_.
-## Scenario
+If you are unable to budget for and pay your credit card outstanding balance **in any month**, then we also have you covered, see the [Carrying Debt](./carrying-debt.md) page for a step-by-step guide on how to set up Actual and track this debt in a safe and sustainable manner.
-Below we're going to describe a scenario showing you how you can safely use a credit card without racking up any debt. There's a lot of text in the following sections but don't worry, actually implementing this strategy is very easy.
+**tl;dr. If you don't budget funds you don't have and don't spend money that is not covered in your budget, you will not incur any new debt and always have enough funds to pay for your new credit card purchases whenever you want!**
+Actual treats credit card accounts like any bank account, but with a negative value. These negative account balances are subtracted from your positive deposit account balances to give your available "On Budget" funds. As you make purchases with your credit card, the credit card account balance goes further into the negative, thus reducing your available "On Budget" balance. The same thing happens when you pay a utility bill or make a purchase from a checking account - the available "On Budget" balance decreases. When you categorize these expenditures from a budget category with a positive balance, you determine from what envelope the money comes. Since you only put real money in the envelopes at the start of the month, you know you have enough to cover the expenditures regardless of what account they came from.
-### Setup {#scenario-setup}
+When you transfer money from On Budget to On Budget accounts, the On Budget balance stays the same, it doesn't matter what type of account it is. When you make a credit card payment (transfer), you bring the credit card account balance closer to $0.00 and your checking account closer to $0.00 by the exact same amount, but in opposite directions! You will move the same amount of money out of your checking account just as if you made those purchases with your checking debit card, you'll just do it a bit later, when the credit card statement comes. Remember, the purchases are deducted from the budget when you assign them a category.
-To start with we're going to be creating two accounts, **Checking** and **Credit Card**, both with a starting balance of 0. We're also going to say that we're receiving 250 in income on the 1st of every month.
+:::note[Here's an example that may help:]
-In this scenario we're going to say that we're planning on buying a new laptop for 500. Since we don't have any savings set aside for making this purchase at once we're instead going to create a category called **New Laptop** into which we will budget the money we're saving for this purchase.
+Imagine you have a checking account with $1,000, and Savings with $4,000, so you have a total of $5,000 in the budget.
+You spend $50 on a new jacket using your checking debit card, from your funded Clothing category. The money leaves the budget, the checking account balance drops to $950. The total On Budget balance is now $4,950.
-### Month 1 {#scenario-month-1}
+If you want to top up the checking back to $1,000 you just make a transfer of $50 from Savings to Checking. You don't need a category, since the On Budget balance doesn't change. You could transfer any amount over, and it wouldn't matter.
-It's the first day of the month and we've just received our salary into our checking account, and so we create a transaction depositing 250 into the Income category.
+Now imagine the same scenario, but the Checking balance starts at $0, and Savings is $5,000. You still have the same On Budget balance of $5,000.
-Since we don't have any other expenses this month we know that we're able to put aside the full 250 that we have available to budget this month into the **New Laptop** category. Since the category balance is so far only 250 we know that we don't yet have enough money set aside to buy the laptop for 500, and so the purchase will have to wait until another month.
+After the transaction, Checking is -$50, but the On Budget balance is the same $4,950 as above. And just like before, you can transfer any amount over without affecting that total balance, so the transfer doesn't need a category. You could move as much as you want, but it only takes $50 to get the account back to zero.
-At the end of the month our budget looks like this:
-- **New Laptop** category has a balance of 250.
-- **Checking** account has a balance of 250.
-- **Credit Card** account has a balance of 0.
+As far as Actual is concerned a credit card account is the same as any other account, you just choose to let the balance go negative.
+:::
+We highly recommend you follow the _Within the Budget_ strategy for credit card use. _Every_ time you make a credit card purchase, enter the transaction and select a category with money set aside in the Budgeted column and a positive Budget Balance.
-### Month 2 {#scenario-month-2}
+### Credit card "rules" to stay _Within the Budget_:
+- Never Over Budget. Only budget funds you actually have!
+- Check your category balance _before_ spending.
+- Enter your new purchase transactions quickly.
+- Cover all overspending.
+- Reconcile your accounts at least monthly.
+- Pay _at least_ your statement New Balance before the due date.
+- A "Credit Limit" is _not_ an invitation to spend it!
-The first of the second month rolls around and we've just received our salary again, and just as last month we create a deposit of 250 into the Income category.
-Our expenses are unchanged and we yet again budget 250 into the **New Laptop** category. This means that we finally have a balance of 500 in the **New Laptop** category and are now able to make the purchase we were looking forward to. So we buy the laptop using our credit card and put the transaction in the **New Laptop** category, since that's the category holding the money we set aside for this very purchase.
+:::note
-Our budget now looks like this:
-- **New Laptop** category has a balance of 0 since we just used the whole balance for the purchase.
-- **Checking** account has a balance of 500.
-- **Credit Card** account has a balance of -500.
+If you have recently moved to Actual from nYNAB or some other budgeting apps, you may notice that Actual doesn't use specific "credit card" accounts. Read through how Actual treats credit cards above and follow the examples in [Paying in Full](./paying-in-full.md) and in [Carrying Debt](./carrying-debt.md) to learn how Actual handles credit cards.
-Later that month when we receive the credit card bill for 500 and since we know that we didn't overspend in any category we know that we have the money for paying the bill in full already set aside and so we can pay the bill in full with no worries.
+:::
-When we've paid the bill we account for this in Actual by creating a transfer from our **Checking** account to the **Credit Card** account for 500, meaning that our budget now looks like this:
-- **New Laptop** category has a balance of 0.
-- **Checking** account has a balance of 0.
-- **Credit Card** account has a balance of 0.
-Since we made sure to only spend money that we already had budgeted we were able to use the credit card to make a large purchase without any worries of incurring more debt!
-
-
-### Conclusion
-
-Hopefully after reading this example scenario you've seen that managing credit card spending safely can be pretty easy with a little bit of planning.
-
-On the other hand if some emergency comes up where you need to "borrow" some of the money you had set aside for paying the credit card bill then you've overspent your money and are now in debt. This is perfectly okay, but it means that you need to switch over to following the [Carrying Debt](./carrying-debt.md) strategy for managing this debt. Following this scenario you'd substitute the **New Laptop** category for the **Credit Card** category.
diff --git a/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/paying-in-full.md b/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/paying-in-full.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7086f31af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/budgeting/credit-cards/paying-in-full.md
@@ -0,0 +1,139 @@
+# Paying in Full - Within the Budget
+
+If you pay off your credit card statement every month, then you will want to use this page to understand how Actual helps you work with your credit card to stay _Within the Budget_. In this case, you will _**not**_ create a separate Budget category for this credit card. Each transaction will be deducted from the Budget and Available funds as they are entered and categorized to a funded category.
+
+If you are unable to budget for and pay your credit card outstanding balance, see the [Carrying Debt](./carrying-debt.md) page for a step-by-step guide on how to set up Actual and track this debt in a safe and sustainable manner.
+
+**tl;dr. If you don't budget funds you don't have and don't spend money that is not covered in your budget, you will not incur any new debt and always have enough funds to pay for your new credit card purchases whenever you want!**
+
+Starting our example Budget in July, we'll show you step-by-step how to handle credit cards in Actual.
+
+## Example
+
+:::tip
+
+To show more top level information about your budget, hover over the top left corner of the header and press the expand arrows:
+
+
+
+
+
+:::
+
+
+
+We started our budget at the beginning of July and we normally pay off our Chase Credit Card statement every month. We had some new transactions from June, so we entered a Starting Balance of $35.00.
+
+**Notice** that money we _owe_ goes into the "Payment" column.
+
+Every time we use the card, we choose a category with a positive Budget Balance. Our account closes on the 7th of every month and our statement arrives a few days later. When the July statement arrives, our Chase account looks like this:
+
+
+
+:::note
+
+See [Carrying Debt](./carrying-debt.md) for instructions on how we set up our account display. You can see examples of how we dealt with our other two debt carrying credit cards, too.
+
+:::
+
+We'll need the following informaiton from our July statement:
+
+**Chase Account Summary - July 2025**
+- Previous Balance: $564.23
+- Payments Received: $564.23
+- New Purchases: $93.23
+- Cash Advances: $0.00
+- Fees Charged: $0.00
+- Interest Charged: $0.00
+- New Balance: $93.23
+
+:::note
+
+If necessary, remember to enter a transaction for any interest and or fees charged and categorize them to a funded budget category.
+
+:::
+
+
+
+When we [reconcile](/docs/accounts/reconciliation.md) our account for this first month, we clear all of the June purchases and payments (which should be part of the "Starting Balance") in one lump. In our case their lump sum is $35.00.
+
+
+
+We know that we accounted for all of these purchases as **none** of our Budget categories are overspent and our "To Budget" amount in the Budget header is **not** less than 0.00. We can pay our statement New Balance without worry, so we send Chase $93.23 from Ally Savings and we _Make Transfer_ that amount from Ally to Chase as a deposit to our Chase credit card account.
+
+
+
+We continue to spend in July, sometimes using our Chase card and _always_ categorizing each transaction to a category with a positive Budget Balance, thereby spending _Within the Budget_.
+
+At the end of July, our Budget looks like this:
+
+
+
+
+
+Our Chase credit card account looks like this:
+
+
+
+
+
+We set up our August Budget on the 1st and it looks a lot like our July Budget.
+We continue to spend and categorize each transaction _Within the Budget_ and when our August statement arrives on the 12th, our Chase credit card account looks like this:
+
+
+
+**Chase Account Summary - August 2025**
+- Previous Balance: $93.23
+- Payments Received: $93.23
+- New Purchases: $213.15
+- Cash Advances: $0.00
+- Fees Charged: $0.00
+- Interest Charged: $0.00
+- New Balance: $213.15
+
+We [reconcile](/docs/accounts/reconciliation.md) our Chase account and it now looks like this:
+
+
+
+
+
+Because we have been categorizing every new purchase to a category with a positive Budget Balance _Within the Budget_, we know that we can pay for them. We can choose to pay either the statement New Balance of $213.15 or our current balance of $219.27.
+
+:::tip
+
+Perhaps you're like many of us and you have your account set to auto-pay the statement balance every month on the due date. Enter that transfer transaction on the due date.
+
+If you use a Schedule for your auto-pay, edit the payment amount in your next Schedule to equal your statement New Balance.
+
+:::
+
+Our Chase account now looks like this:
+
+
+
+
+
+on the 18th, our Budget looks like this:
+
+
+
+
+
+:::tip
+
+To budget and pay for a large purchase with your credit card, make a new category for it and add to it's **Budgeted** column every month until you have enough to pay for the purchase. When you make the purchase, categorize it to this new category and you'll know you have enough money to pay the bill when it comes. You did not create Overspending and stayed _Within the Budget_.
+
+:::
+
+:::warning
+
+Be aware that when you do not pay **at least** the statement balance by the due date, you will lose your "Grace Period" and incur interest from the date of purchase for all new purchases. You will need to budget for this interest! It may take a few months of paying your statement balance in full to gain back your Grace Period.
+
+:::
+
+### Conclusion
+
+Hopefully after looking through this example you've seen that managing credit card spending safely can be pretty easy if you stay _Within the Budget_.
+
+On the other hand if some emergency comes up where you are unable to pay off the entire credit card statement, then you've overspent your money and are now in debt. This is perfectly okay, but it means that you need to switch over to following the [Carrying Debt](./carrying-debt.md) strategy for managing this debt.
+
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-01.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-01.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d4371dee1
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-01.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-010.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-010.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..54be33328
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-010.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-011.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-011.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2b44c96f9
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-011.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-012.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-012.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a465125ca
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-012.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-013.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-013.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..42b9fa012
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-013.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-014.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-014.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4063eb4f3
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-014.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-02.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-02.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e46c17744
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-02.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-03.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-03.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..15c0ccf6d
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-03.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-04.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-04.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..58e03f9eb
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-04.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-05.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-05.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3506eb14c
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-05.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-06.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-06.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..13c1ac201
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-06.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-07.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-07.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5bc28f445
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-07.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-08.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-08.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3c669026c
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-08.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-09.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-09.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..38c1c0182
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-09.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-01.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-01.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2af615d6a
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-01.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-010.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-010.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d98699249
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-010.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-02.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-02.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..00f6e1431
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-02.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-03.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-03.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e3dc51df3
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-03.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-04.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-04.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b976ef7f2
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-04.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-05.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-05.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..743e6d2d7
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-05.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-06.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-06.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..09c07ac0c
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-06.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-07.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-07.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..69bfee51c
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-07.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-08.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-08.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..14ce35919
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-08.png differ
diff --git a/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-09.png b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-09.png
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..148abec8f
Binary files /dev/null and b/static/img/credit-cards/CC-IND-09.png differ