Debt Quencher feature request?
Ben
impressed with it and it has already shown me how I can be debt free
in a relatively short amount of time. Thanks for the impressive
package - I think I'll be looking into MoneyWell next!
One thing I did note - I don't know whether this feature exists and I
just haven't found it yet - most credit cards express your minimum
payment as a percentage of your overall balance (e.g. 2%, 2.25%) or a
minimum amount (e.g. £5), whichever is greater. DQ has a minimum
payment column, but it requires that this be altered every month. Is
it possible to set up a feature that adjusts the minimum payment based
on these rules as a way of showing how long it would take to actually
pay off your balance at the minimum rate? I've tried doing it myself
in a spreadsheet but I couldn't figure out the interest functions to
make it work properly.
I appreciate this is more of a "kick up the backside" feature designed
to scare rather than aid towards actual meaningful debt reduction!
The other feature I was wondering about is balance transfer.
As an example:
Credit Card 1: 15.8% (1.313% per month) balance of £400, limit of
£2000
Credit Card 2: 9.9% (0.793% per month, based on paying 10% of balance,
else 14.9% APR) balance of £1050, limit of £1600
(yes, these are very close to my own figures!)
I can transfer onto credit card 2, for 0% for 9 months, with a
handling fee of 2.5% of the transferred balance up to a maximum of 90%
of the credit limit of credit card 2. This would enable me to cancel
card 1, and reduce interest payments massively, except I cannot
transfer the full amount off card 2 for at least 1 month, otherwise I
break the 90% limit. The other option is to pay off more on CC2,
allowing me to perform that payment immediately.
Whilst I can get just about work out the scenarios and benefits for
myself on this one, as it is relatively simple, transfers like this
are useful tools in debt management, and would be a great thing to
preview the effect of in DQ.
Again, it is a complicated sort of calculation though, and I guess the
timings of the offer rate and the handling fee etc. would make it
awkward to program, and would detract from the simplicity of DQ.
Just a thought! Thanks for the great software!
Ben
Kevin Hoctor
> Hi, downloaded and purchased Debt Quencher last night - I'm really
> impressed with it and it has already shown me how I can be debt free
> in a relatively short amount of time. Thanks for the impressive
> package - I think I'll be looking into MoneyWell next!
>
Hi Ben,
Thanks!
> One thing I did note - I don't know whether this feature exists and I
> just haven't found it yet - most credit cards express your minimum
> payment as a percentage of your overall balance (e.g. 2%, 2.25%) or a
> minimum amount (e.g. £5), whichever is greater. DQ has a minimum
> payment column, but it requires that this be altered every month. Is
> it possible to set up a feature that adjusts the minimum payment based
> on these rules as a way of showing how long it would take to actually
> pay off your balance at the minimum rate? I've tried doing it myself
> in a spreadsheet but I couldn't figure out the interest functions to
> make it work properly.
>
Debt Quencher was kept simple on purpose. I do know that there are
rules for minimum balances and even fees for over limits but the goal
was to keep the data entry as uncluttered as possible. If you really
are going to pay only 2% of the balance, you will be paying for many,
many years. Putting in a static amount is generous compared to the
credit card company methods but it gives you a baseline still.
> I appreciate this is more of a "kick up the backside" feature designed
> to scare rather than aid towards actual meaningful debt reduction!
>
Exactly.
> The other feature I was wondering about is balance transfer.
>
> As an example:
>
> Credit Card 1: 15.8% (1.313% per month) balance of £400, limit of
> £2000
> Credit Card 2: 9.9% (0.793% per month, based on paying 10% of balance,
> else 14.9% APR) balance of £1050, limit of £1600
>
> (yes, these are very close to my own figures!)
>
> I can transfer onto credit card 2, for 0% for 9 months, with a
> handling fee of 2.5% of the transferred balance up to a maximum of 90%
> of the credit limit of credit card 2. This would enable me to cancel
> card 1, and reduce interest payments massively, except I cannot
> transfer the full amount off card 2 for at least 1 month, otherwise I
> break the 90% limit. The other option is to pay off more on CC2,
> allowing me to perform that payment immediately.
>
> Whilst I can get just about work out the scenarios and benefits for
> myself on this one, as it is relatively simple, transfers like this
> are useful tools in debt management, and would be a great thing to
> preview the effect of in DQ.
>
Messing with balances to pay off one card with another certainly is
tricky. So are cash advances and balance transfers. They cause the
payoff to require viewing multiple balances with different rates on
the same card.
You can split a single account (card) into multiple accounts with
different interest rates to simulate this but again that gets
complicated. What I generally suggest is to take the pessimistic
interest rate (the higher one) and use that as your interest rate. You
may save a bit of money swapping balances on cards or by paying just
the purchase balance first but I've found that paying down each card
is simple and effective also.
> Again, it is a complicated sort of calculation though, and I guess the
> timings of the offer rate and the handling fee etc. would make it
> awkward to program, and would detract from the simplicity of DQ.
>
> Just a thought! Thanks for the great software!
I appreciate the thoughts and suggestions. I did use a program that
could handle most of this prior to writing Debt Quencher but it was so
complex (and then the company went out of business) that I decided to
avoid that complexity as much as possible. Debt Quencher will probably
get a few more features as long as I can keep the interface nearly as
clean. Thanks.
Peace,
Kevin Hoctor
ke...@nothirst.com
No Thirst Software LLC
http://nothirst.com
http://kevinhoctor.blogspot.com