Credit card calculators that consider 0% intro rates?

neatdesign · #1 (**permalink**) 09-15-2006, 07:20 PM

Hello all...

I know there are tons of free online calculators out there (including one on this site) that figure out how long it will take you to pay off your credit cards. However, I need one that takes 0% intro rates into consideration. The only ones I seem to find are ones that assume your interest rates stay the same. The thing is, I KNOW I've used one before online that did this, but for the life of me I can't find it.

Can anybody help?

~ Jenney

project15 · #2 (**permalink**) 09-15-2006, 09:56 PM

Loan Amount / Monthly Payment = # months to pay it off at 0%

Or you can combine this with the calculator. If you have 0% for 12 months on a $10,000 loan and want to pay $500 a month for those 12 months, you would do:

$10,000 - (12 months * $500) = $4000

You put the $4000 into the calculator with the new interest rate of 18% and continuing the $500 payments per month. That gives you:
"It will take approximately 9 months (1 years) to pay off your credit card! In that time you will have paid $4,500 including interest."

So...you've paid $6000 for 12 months with 0% interest, you've paid $4500 total with the 18% rate for 9 months. It's taken you 21 months and $10,500 total to pay it off with 0% for 12 months.

neatdesign · #3 (**permalink**) 09-17-2006, 01:56 PM

Thanks for your response. I didn't word my post very well at all -- my bad. What I really need is a calculator that takes the different APR buckets making up a credit card balance into account.

For instance, I have a credit card with a total balance of $16,600. Of that total, $13,560 is in the 5.99% bucket, and the other $3040 is in the 0% bucket. Both of these rates are fixed and have no expiration. However, my payments are not allocated equally; they go towards the 0% bucket first, but I have no idea what the actual allocation percentage is of each payment.

That's why I need a calculator to help me figure this out. I did see one online a long time ago but can't find it. If anyone has any links to one, please post it, I'd appreciate it.

~ Jenney

neatdesign · #4 (**permalink**) 09-19-2006, 05:28 AM

Anyone??

I'm sure I'm not the only person with a credit card which has more than one APR simulataneously, so I would hope this sort of calculator is out there somewhere. It might not be exact, but it would help at least!

~ Jenney

RJB1180 · #5 (**permalink**) 09-19-2006, 11:11 AM

All credit cards, except Lowe's, pay the lowest interest amount first, ie all of your payment goes to the 3040 every month.

neatdesign · #6 (**permalink**) 09-19-2006, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RJB1180

All credit cards, except Lowe's, pay the lowest interest amount first, ie all of your payment goes to the 3040 every month.

That's not true. Firstly, when I worked at Capital One, on occasion I did come across some accounts where the first bucket (purchase rate) was paid off first. It wasn't very common but it does happen sometimes.

Beyond that, if an account has a balance that's spread out among multiple buckets, some of it will ALWAYS goes towards each bucket. It may be that 98% of each payment goes towards the third bucket (special transfers), but never 100%.

Also, it is possible to have balances in two buckets that are the same APR, but one still gets paid down first. There are two common scenarios where this might happen. First, if the purchase and cash advance APRs are the same; usually the purchases will get paid down first, because cash advances have no grace period. Second, if the purchase APR and post-intro special transfer APR are the same; usually the special transfers will be paid down first, because at one point that rate WAS lower than the purchase rate.

Regardless, every payment gets allocated according to the bucket, not the APR.

Of course, now that I'm thinking of it, I'm not sure there IS going to be a calculator out there that will allow me to figure this out. If I don't know what the payment allocation percentages are, then that's that, isn't it? I'll just have to guesstimate...

~ Jenney

LuxLiving · #7 (**permalink**) 09-19-2006, 03:59 PM

Can you call your CC company and ask?

RJB1180 · #8 (**permalink**) 09-20-2006, 05:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neatdesign

That's not true. Firstly, when I worked at Capital One, on occasion I did come across some accounts where the first bucket (purchase rate) was paid off first. It wasn't very common but it does happen sometimes.

Beyond that, if an account has a balance that's spread out among multiple buckets, some of it will ALWAYS goes towards each bucket. It may be that 98% of each payment goes towards the third bucket (special transfers), but never 100%.

Also, it is possible to have balances in two buckets that are the same APR, but one still gets paid down first. There are two common scenarios where this might happen. First, if the purchase and cash advance APRs are the same; usually the purchases will get paid down first, because cash advances have no grace period. Second, if the purchase APR and post-intro special transfer APR are the same; usually the special transfers will be paid down first, because at one point that rate WAS lower than the purchase rate.

Regardless, every payment gets allocated according to the bucket, not the APR.

Of course, now that I'm thinking of it, I'm not sure there IS going to be a calculator out there that will allow me to figure this out. If I don't know what the payment allocation percentages are, then that's that, isn't it? I'll just have to guesstimate...

~ Jenney

First, CC guru read your T&C it will tell you what your allocation should be. Second, if they (personally Ive dealt with this at discover, chase, boa and capital one, store cards) say that payments go to the lowest APR then the entire payment goes there. I have never dealt with buckets, the only way any card company has dealt with me is in terms of APR.

neatdesign · #9 (**permalink**) 09-20-2006, 05:43 AM

Dude, no need to get snippy about it. I never said I was a "CC guru" but my experience working at a credit card company taught me things about credit cards that I otherwise wouldn't have known. One of those things has to do with payment allocation. Another is the concept of buckets, which is industry jargon to refer to the different types of balances making up an account's total balance.

That said, if you had a Capital One card with a balance spread over two or more buckets, and a customer rep ever told you that 100% of your payment goes towards the portion of your balance with the highest APR, they were lying. I know this for a fact.

To my knowledge, the T&C does not clarify the breakdown of the payment allocation beyond, "The balance with the highest APR gets paid down first." In other words, it doesn't give the actual percentages involved in the allocation.

I think I will call USAA and find out if they can determine the payment allocation percentage. If their systems are like Capital One's, they will not know the number off-hand, but they should be able to give me the breakdown of my payment allocations over the past few months. That's probably the closest I'll be able to get in calculating my payoff timeframe.

~ Jenney