SOA Calculator updates & news on Snowball Calculator

poorandindenial

Clariman wrote: »

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?

That would be grand, especially if you can add in a couple of them (sorry, I am demanding I know but all my spreadsheets are designed to reflect where I have extra expenses or extra cash in a month so I tend to use them ratehr than the calculators as they offer me more flexibility - although they are fairly basic)

Clariman wrote: »

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?

Mine throws ALL overpayment at it because the non-promo rate is higher than my other debts. I'll PM you my login details so that you can see what I mean

Clariman wrote: »

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.
Not sure what you mean. Can you explain?
Have you seen the Stoozing Calculator on the stoozing site which was the first one I wrote?

I have and very handy it is too, I guess it is really about combining these two things so that you can stooze for your debts and overpay the others in the same place - although I appreciate that is a pain in the bum as then you would have to link the debt you are stoozing to cover so that you can see the offset and so that the programme knew when to take the cash from the ISA and move it to clear a debt. Not remotely essential, I am just as bit demanding (the one off payment thingy would very likely cover most of what needs to happen)

Clariman wrote: »

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

Oops, sorry, I haven't used the SOA myself for a bit, I have just ripped other people's apart - I will have a nose at how it is looking now - sorry:o

Clariman wrote: »

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

Clariman

We are lucky to have lovely people like you that are wiling to spend your time doing this. :T

Clariman

Actually, I need to think a little more carefully about how 0% intro offers are handled. I don't think that it is as simple as doing minimum payments on the 0% card during the intro period, because you could end up with a large sum left on the card which then gets charged at a high standard APR. Reducing that card more quickly by over-paying during the 0% period could be the right thing to do.

Clariman

poorandindenial

I agree, my minimum payments are set by me (rather than the actual minimum payments - sorry, the way I worded it probably wasn't very helpful earlier) as the outstanding amount divided by the months available (which I then mess about with based on what is coming up in individual months and to minimise the risk at the end) but for simplicity that is how I do it, the minimum payment on my 0% card is only £25pcm but I pay an average of £530. Could that be one way round it???

I have to say though to do this on a spreadsheet I have ended up going back to basics and do lots of manual updating of payment figures (although the rest is automated) as otherwise it would be a crazy mess of nested ifs and would have to link to individual monthly budgets etc etc (which isn't a problem but is a lot of setting up).

Clariman

I think I need to sit in a darkened room for a couple of hours, with no distractions, in order to work out how to handle 0% introductory periods. I can see why it would make sense to use the card's standard APR as a basis for overpaying it ... in fact, the more I think about it, the more I think that would be the best. OTOH, maybe it is a little more complicated than that. As I said, I need some peace and quiet to think about it ... or any clear thinking DFWers who've thought this all through before.

Clariman