💳 Credit cards
This is the least intuitive part of the app, and also the most powerful: used well, your credit card never catches you by surprise again. Let's take it slowly.
On this page
Each card has its own envelope
When you add a credit card account, Sobres automatically creates a "card payment" envelope for it. You don't create it and you don't edit it like the others: it's a reserve for paying the card when the statement arrives.
How the reserve works
Here's the key: when you pay with the card from an envelope that has money, that money doesn't disappear. It moves from the spending envelope to the card's envelope.
When the statement arrives, you already have the $1,500 set aside. Paying the card won't hurt.
Card debt hurts because it arrives later, when you've already spent the money. With the reserve, you set the payment aside at the moment you buy. The card becomes just a way to pay, not a source of debt.
When you spend with the card without funds in the envelope
What happens if you buy with the card from an envelope that doesn't have enough? That part becomes uncovered debt (overspending): you spent money you hadn't set aside, so the app can't reserve the payment.
Assign money to that envelope (or move money from another one that has some) to cover the missing $300. As soon as you do, that debt is covered and the card payment is complete again.
Paying the card
When you pay the statement, you record it as a transfer from your checking account to the card (see Accounts). That payment uses the money you already had set aside in the card's envelope, so your budget stays balanced.
What if…?
What if I don't pay the full balance, just part of it?
Record the payment for the amount you paid. Whatever reserve you don't use stays in the card's envelope for the next payment. The remaining debt still shows in the account balance.
What if my card already had debt when I started using Sobres?
That's debt that isn't covered yet. Set up an envelope/assignment to pay it down little by little; the Debt payment goal type is ideal for that.
What if I get a refund or return on the card?
Record it as income in the matching category; adjust the reserve if needed. The logic is the reverse of a purchase: instead of setting money aside, you free it up.
Why can't I edit the card's envelope like the others?
Because the app manages it on its own: its balance is calculated from your purchases, payments and reserves. You control the spending envelopes; the reserve adjusts accordingly.