Spreadsheet with interest

[thewifeandI]

Ok I am completely baffled now. With credit cards I need to be able to use the card companies monthly interest rate and apply it to any charges made in that month. The spreadsheet doesnt seem to allow using a monthly interest rate.

This is an area that I'm not certain about - one for Vamp I think...

Where Banks are concerned surely we only need to charge compound interest based on their monthly unauthorised overdraft interest rate ?

 

I'm no expert on spread sheets but it seems to me that if a charge was made on 30/2/2004 then interest is calculable from then until now.

But only on the proportion of the interest that was due to charges. For bank accounts it is clear cut, but a credit card is effectively 'all overdraft', and much of the interest is 'legitimate' (although far too high). Also there are usually at least two rates applied to most accounts (purchase and cash/cheque withdrawals).

Afraid my brain is starting to get too old and frazzled to start trying to work out interest owed over a 6 year period when multiple charges have been made. I can't for the life of me understand why the account balance is needed on a monthly basis when we are really only interested in interest they owe us on charges made against us.

The reason for having the account balance is that the way the the sheet calculates how much is down to charges is by looking at the total balance owing and working out the proportion of the balance that is due to the accumulated charges up to that date and working out that proportion of the interest.

[thewifeandI]

Hi guys,

 

thanks for ALL ur help so far been a very good read all round and found out the answers to all my questions!

 

BUT! got a problem. I get that I have to take the balance at the time the interest is taken out and if that balance is positive I take the worst overdrawn balance of that month, and I get if I've been charged more than once in a month I only put the interest in once, but I've noticed on my statements (although it dose not say it) that they charge interest in arreas i.e period of 9th april - 9th may I was charged interest in june!!?? I only noticed this because I was'nt charged any interest between 9th april - 9th may even though I was overdrawn, but I was charged interest in june but I was in credit. Dose this mean I have to start again and put in the interest that was charged in june and june's balance or do I just continue putting in the interest charged in the month the unlawful charge was applied?

 

This is getting so confusing, just as I think I've got it something else creeps up:confused: been at it 2 weeks now HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi pettal - I got round this by using the highest overdrawn figure for the month in question.

[thewifeandI]

Only put in an interest debited figure where it occurs - don't leave blank or zero rows - the interest side doesn't have to line up with the charges and will usually end up as a shorter list.

[thewifeandI]

The balance on a credit card would (almost) always be negative, as you owe them money. It would be extremely rare for a card with charges to be in credit.

[thewifeandI]

You use the coloured one if you are going to reclaim the interest on the bank charges. This one can calculate the interest the bank has charged you on the proportion of the overdraft that is due to charges. It also does the 8% s69 interest that is ONLY claimed when the claim reaches the Moneyclaim stage. The other spreadsheet only does the 8% bit.

 

Both of them obviously add up your charges for you.

[thewifeandI]

There are a number of elements that make up your claim: -

 

1. Unlawful bank charges.

2. Interest on the portion of the overdraft that is due to accumulated unlawful bank charges.

3. When you raise a court claim you are entitled to claim 8% 's69 Interest' on the value of the claim at this point only.

 

Some people don't bother with the second item as it can be complicated and might not be enough to bother about.

 

 

The coloured spreadsheet will work out all of this for you but you are advised to have a good read through this thread before using it.

[thewifeandI]

You multiply the total of your claim excluding court fees by 0.00022 which will give you a figure of for example 0.352 which is 35 pence. The amount in pence (or £ & p) is put in the claim as the daily rate. It is applicable to the period from the date the claim is filed until it is settled and should be paid to you on top of the basic amount of the claim and court costs.

[thewifeandI]

Hi Cola - Just fill in the righthand turquoise columns of the 'Charges and Interest' sheet with the details of the interest paid. There's loads of info on doing this if you go back to page three of this thread and start reading through from there.

[thewifeandI]

If you've only got Word, not Excel or Works, then it won't work on your computer without obtaining extra software.

[thewifeandI]

At the top of the Charges & Interest sheet are two yellow boxes - these are the total charges and the total interest on charges that make up you claim.

 

On the 8% Interest sheet the amount to claim for s69 interest is yellow totals headed '8% on...' - add these two together and use that figure. Also, type in the date that you are filing the court papers in place of the date in the Todays Date box at the top of that sheet - this will freeze the calculation to that date, so when you look at it in a week's time it will still have the figure on your claim form.

[thewifeandI]

With your prelim letter it is not necessary to send a list of charges, just a total, but you can send the full list if you want to. If you want to add interest paid on those charges then use the advanced spreadsheet (see my sig below for the link). Don't include the 8% s69 interest at this stage.

[thewifeandI]

Ok then,worked out my interest with 16%.Not brave enough to go for the whole thing (25.9%).

Just one last thing.Read a few threads and noticed it has been mentioned that the interest list on the spreadsheet should be shorter than the charges list?

mine is almost double the size of the charges list,and i am convinced that i done something wrong now.

This isn't guaranteed, but usually you are only charged interest once a month, but there's often several charges in a month. If this isn't the case then don't worry. The main reason it was mentioned was when people were attempting to line up the interest on the right with the charge on the left by leaving gaps in the interest side - which is not the right way to do it.

[thewifeandI]

You can put the same as they did for the charges description. If you are using the coloured spreadsheet there is the option to enter the interest charged and it will calculate the proportion due to charges.

[thewifeandI]

It depends if all the Barclays interest is due to charges. The Lloyds one sounds better.

[thewifeandI]

Could you explain the problem that you're having?

[thewifeandI]

Does the number of days work out automatically up to today's date or the last date you enter in the spread?

It works to the date set in the box at the top (usually automatically calculated as today's date).

[thewifeandI]

The amount it works out to is dependent on how much of the overdraft is due to charges.

[thewifeandI]

If you use the coloured spreadsheet you can also enter the interest charged and it will do the working out for you.

[thewifeandI]

There's no problem in adding the interest when you send the LBA letter, along with any new charges that might have been added. I changed my claim amount at every stage until Moneyclaim.

[thewifeandI]

The 8% s69 interest in your Moneyclaim is claimed in two ways: -

 

The charges and interest on charges accumulate 8% interest from the day they are charged until the date of the claim. At this point the amount claimed is fixed.

 

There is an option to claim interest on the claim amount (excluding the 8% amount) for the period from the date of claim until the date of settlement. This is worked out by multiplying the amount claimed (excluding 8% interest and court fees) by 0.00022 giving a daily rate where 0.34 = 34p. This is effectively extending the 8% s69 interest up to the date of settlement.

 

I hope that makes sense!

[thewifeandI]

hi, i dont understand how to access the interest spreadsheet, can you help.

 

alicia:)

See the link below in my sig.

[thewifeandI]

If you have the coloured spreadsheet you can enter your charges and the interest information into the Charges and Interest sheet and print off a copy of this.

 

You will need to deal with the business charges as a seperate issue. Have a look in the FAQs. There's no DPA letter for a business as the data isn't personal.

[thewifeandI]

Enter the charges into the spreadsheet in the same way that they have on the statements into the left side, then enter interest debited into the right hand side.

[thewifeandI]

@tamadus Hello and thank you for your reply. I should have put it a month behind as you said, I will correct that first. From then on do I list any interest charged just for the months that a charge was incurred or for every month on from the first charge? Also, if I have 3 or 4 charges in a single month do I list the interest 3 or 4 times or just once?

Hi Mark - You only enter each interest charge once - on the right hand side of the coloured spreadsheet - oldest at the top, for EVERY month since the first month with charges. DON'T leave any gaps - they don't have to line up with the charges for that month. Expect the right hand column to be shorter than the left (in most cases).

[thewifeandI]

Thanks tamadus thats a good start and I thank you. It's all those 8%'s.

 

as for the contractual rates, are you suggesting that the 'complex' spreadsheet from Vamps collection is not working correctly for the credit card accounts?

Hi Andrew - have you obtained the correct CC version of the spreadsheet, or are you trying to use the Current Account version? There's also different versions for Scotland.

 

I have a credit card which was closed in 2004 and sold on to a dca.

 

When I calculate the charges I just add on the spreadsheet all the dates and charges accordingly.

I also work out the interest by using the balance (- figure) and the monthly interest they charged for the whole month.

 

That being done - to what date do we set the spreadsheet? To todays date or the date the account was sold in 2004?

Set it to today - the interest is due from the date of each charge until the claim is filed at court.