I'm suprised that Microsoft has not added more functionality in this area.
It seems that credit card companies are coming up with about every gimmic
promotion you could imagine to get your business these days. Really there is
a lot that could be added here, such as:

* Break a credit card balance into multiple user defined subcategories, with
different interest rates and promotional periods. (For example, one rate for
purchases, another for cash advances, and another for balance transfers...
which might or might not share the same credit limit or other attributes.)

* Automatically track various types of transactions and classify these as
being added to the appropriate subcategory. (IE, transactions transferring
funds to another account would be classified as and added to the balance
transfer rate subcategory, or purchases made before a certain date or over a
specified amount should fall under another subcategory.)

* Define "90 days same as cash" or "18 months no interest" with not only a
selection of how long the promotional rate will last, but also what penalty
there might be if it isn't paid in full or meets some other criteria by that
date. Add not only the ability to raise the interest rate from that day
forth, but also to tack on additional charges that could be computed based
on the account's balance history (ie, recalculate a higher rate of interest
back to the original purchase dates.)

I've seen Microsoft Money suggest to me that I should not pay down debt
accounts beyond just the minimum payments when it sees that the interest
rates are lower than the rates I am getting on a savings plan. If it was
possible to define clearly to Microsoft Money what happens at the end of the
18 month promotional period on my account, I'm sure that it would suggest
saving a few dollars each month and then paying off half the balance all in
one baloon payment at the end... There's no point in letting the company
have my money early when I'm not being charged interest at all. But, this
directly effects the budget and savings plans. The money has to be readily
available on that 18th month, or else I'd be pentalized greatly and
therefore it should make adjustments to those plans to ensure that the
necessary funds are available on the appropriate date.

Then there are also the low-rate but high payment loans, in which it
sometimes makes more sense to transfer the balance off to a slightly higher
rate consolidation account just to eliminate the minimum payment and
associated paperwork. Sometimes decisions like this can only clearly be made
when you take into consideration all of the fine print on the accounts,
which Microsoft Money currently has nowhere to deal with.

-Jeff


"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:OGspLby0DHA.2872[at]TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
- quote -

I'm thinking that this analysis may stump DRP given the interest rate
reversion requirement you raise. This is one of many non-standard scenarios
that DRP just doesn't handle well. Maybe it would be best to factor in that
interest rate from the get go. Let DRP figure out the best way to pay it
down assuming that you'll ultimately end up paying that interest--here I'm
assuming that the interest reversion just applies to your declining balance
over time.

Scenario analysis in Excel may be your only hope of solving this one. But
the time might be better spent job hunting. Good luck.

"Jeff Phillips" <jeff_phil_NO_SPAM_PLEASE_[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:vvh60fh9gsri44[at]corp.supernews.com...
- quote -

Umm... No... I guess I wasn't clear. Microsoft Money has no problem letting
me indicate the 0.0% introductory APR for the first 18 months. However,
after the 18 months is over MS-Money assumes that the rate will change from
that day forth. In reality, if there is even one penny of the balance
remaining after the 18th month then Best Buy / Household Bank will charge me
some absurd interest rate for the entire balance times all of the previous
months dated back to the original purchase date. What I want to do is
indicate to Microsoft Money that it absolutely must have that entire balance
paid by the 18th month, but I still want to be able to use the Debt
Reduction Planner to see if it would be in my best interest to transfer the
balance over to a consolidated loan at a higher interest rate. (It obviously
makes sense to consolidate the cards that are at a higher rate than the
loan, but I'm not sure if it makes sense to raise the rate on this balance
in order to eliminate the monthly payment.)

-Jeff


"Chris Cowles" <NoSpam[at]For.me> wrote in message
news:eDeKC$x0DHA.1908[at]TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
- quote -

How about assigning it a false non-zero interest rate like 0.0001%?

"Jeff Phillips" <jeff_phil_NO_SPAM_PLEASE_[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:vvh60fh9gsri44[at]corp.supernews.com...
- quote -

Point taken. However, I'm comparing two what-if senerios. Given several
credit cards, and being unemployed, I can barely meet the minimums on them
all. I want to consolidate the cards all into one loan, which generally is a
lower interest rate. However, it is obviously higher than the zero percent
on the best buy card so I'm not sure if I should leave that out of the
consolidation or not. If I leave it out, I'll have to have the lump sum at
the 18th month, which means I'd have to have put a few extra dollars away
which might not be in my best interest if those dollars could be used to pay
down the other debts given the choice of consolidating them all.

-Jeff


"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:#SfG4Dw0DHA.2580[at]TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
- quote -

To heck with DRP. Just schedule a one-time payment for 17+ months from now.

"Jeff Phillips" <jeff_phil_NO_SPAM_PLEASE_[at]yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:vvgs17q01ri218[at]corp.supernews.com...
- quote -

How do I get my Household Bank / Best Buy credit card information added to
my debt reduction planner? If I made a major purchase on their zero interest
financing for 18 months plan, and they only want a very low minimum payment
each month until then, then I need to somehow indicate that the remainding
balance no matter how high it is, absolutely must be paid by the 18th month.
Otherwise, they will go and add on a lot of interest for all of the previous
18 months.

When I indicate to Microsoft Money that an intro rate is in effect of 0.0%
until May of 2005, then the only option it gives me for what shall happen at
the end of this is a new fixed interest rate for from there on out. Is there
no way to indicate that on that date if a balance remains then it will
back-date the interest for 18 months worth?

I tried just feeding it some false data to trick it into thinking that it
would be more important to pay that card off by the 18th month than some of
the other ones. For example, I tried telling MS Money that the fixed rate
after the 18th month is 100%. Even at 100% interest Microsoft Money is
suggesting that I let the balance slide for a couple of months beyond the
18th month before it wants me to pay it off completely.

-Jeff