SOA Calculator updates & news on Snowball Calculator

Clariman

Hi all,

I've just made a few amendments to the SOA Calculator. It shouldn't have any impact on you, but the changes are:

1. The "Save Data" button now saves an additional bit of info that will be used by the integrated Snowball Calculator when it comes along.
2. When copying and pasting your SOA into MSE, it will also paste details of what browser you are using. This has been done to allow me to track formatting errors that are browser specific. Hope you don't feel this is an intrusion.

I am working on the Snowball Calculator. The basic screen layout and integration with the SOA calculator has been done, but it doesn't actually create the snowball plan yet! If you'd like a preview of it, you can see it here http://www.makesenseofcards.com/snowcalc.html

I'd really appreciate any comments on whether the form is clear. The "Prefill from SOA" and "Check Form" buttons are operational. If you want to Prefill from SOA, please re-save your SOA in the updated SOA Calculator first (so that it saves the additional info referred to in item 1 above). Once you have done that, the Prefill button should populate the form for you.

Comments appreciated.
Clariman

Clariman

Any comments ?

fermi

I may have a go with it at some point. I'll bump this occasionally over the weekend regardless.

Clariman

Thanks. As I said, it doesn't actually create the Snowball plan yet, but would appreciate any comments on how readily understandable the form is. I haven't written any help or instructions yet either

C

Clariman

bumping up

Clariman

another bump

Clariman

Goodness ... getting feedback is like getting blood out of a stone!!



C

fermi

I expect Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning probably isn't the best time.

Maybe the weekday crowd would be a better bet.

Clariman

You're probably right. Most people have a life .... trouble is I can only really turn my attention to developing it in my spare time ... which tends to be at the weekends or sometimes evenings

C

poorandindenial

Hi Clariman

It looks really user friendly and I like the option to actively select those that you can overpay to.

I haven't tried the integration from the SOA Calc yet but one thing that would be really handy is the ability to add future one off payments (birthday money, those lucky people that get bonuses etc) so that it is easy to see what the real impact of that is

Oh and one problem that I encounter with the WTC snowball is that it ends up giving iffy advice for 0% cards as it focuses on paying them off as fast as possible rather than paying the minimum to hit repayment while reducing interest as fast as possible on other debts. I understand the 'real life' problems with doing it so that there are min payments to hit zero (date the interest kicks in, pay dates and cards with short 0%s left to run being just a few of them)

I can see the rationale for the 'secured debts' inclusion but I wonder of it might cause a little bit of confusion for some people that think they are a normal part of their debt snowball rather than a priority part of their snowball. Mind you it is a useful kick up the bottom for overpaying. I know you will likely cover it in the guidance but it might be worth having a few 'golden rule' bullet points at the top of the page. (ETA: I mean priority for hitting repayments rather than priority for overpaying)

The only other thing that would be very useful is perhaps an ISA calculator that runs alongsite it for people that are stoozing for their 0% deals. (not that there is much point in having an ISA these days)

Will/could it also help people who need to set up a DMP arrange pro-rata payments to creditors?

Anyhow, a quick thank you for all your hard worl on this and the SOA calc. The SOA calc is a godsend when trying to understand what position newbies are in.

Clariman

poorandindenial wrote: »

It looks really user friendly and I like the option to actively select those that you can overpay to.

Thanks. That's good news. For unsecured debts it defaults to saying that you can overpay them (as I'm sure you saw). For Secured debts the calculator makes a hard and fast assumption that you can't overpay them.

... one thing that would be really handy is the ability to add future one off payments (birthday money, those lucky people that get bonuses etc) so that it is easy to see what the real impact of that is

Hmm - it does support a one-off payment but assumes that it is to be made in the current/next month. Would that suffice? I suppose I could create a MM/YY drop down so that you select when you expect to get the lump sum. How about that?

Oh and one problem that I encounter with the WTC snowball is that it ends up giving iffy advice for 0% cards as it focuses on paying them off as fast as possible rather than paying the minimum to hit repayment while reducing interest as fast as possible on other debts. I understand the 'real life' problems with doing it so that there are min payments to hit zero (date the interest kicks in, pay dates and cards with short 0%s left to run being just a few of them)

Not sure what you are saying here. I thought WTC did a proper snowball, paying min payments on low APRs (e.g. 0% cards) and over-paying higher APRs. Doesn't it?

I can see the rationale for the 'secured debts' inclusion but I wonder of it might cause a little bit of confusion for some people that think they are a normal part of their debt snowball rather than a priority part of their snowball.

The user can choose whether or not to include the Secured Debts in the plan. By default the check-box is off, so they won't be included. If they do get included by the user, they will be treated in the calculation as "have-to" debts that get paid before the snowball of the unsecured debts.

Mind you it is a useful kick up the bottom for overpaying. I know you will likely cover it in the guidance but it might be worth having a few 'golden rule' bullet points at the top of the page. (ETA: I mean priority for hitting repayments rather than priority for overpaying)

Not sure what you mean. Can you explain?

The only other thing that would be very useful is perhaps an ISA calculator that runs alongsite it for people that are stoozing for their 0% deals. (not that there is much point in having an ISA these days)

Have you seen the Stoozing Calculator on the stoozing site which was the first one I wrote?

Will/could it also help people who need to set up a DMP arrange pro-rata payments to creditors?

The SOA Calculator already does this. See the "Creditor Offer" button.

Anyhow, a quick thank you for all your hard worl on this and the SOA calc. The SOA calc is a godsend when trying to understand what position newbies are in.

It's a pleasure. I enjoy the challenge of creating them and am delighted to be helping people with their finances.

Clariman