Spreadsheet with interest

[Sugar-walsh]

Hi

 

I have filled out the spreadsheet as per instructions and nothing appears to be happening! I've read thru and now i understand what to do when charged interest whilst in credit, but i can't get the spreadsheet to do anything. When i look at the 8% page it simply has #value where the 8% should be.

 

Have i erased something? Please be nice as first time i've ever filled a spreadsheet in.

 

Thanks

Sugar:p

[thewifeandI]

Hi

 

I have filled out the spreadsheet as per instructions and nothing appears to be happening! I've read thru and now i understand what to do when charged interest whilst in credit, but i can't get the spreadsheet to do anything. When i look at the 8% page it simply has #value where the 8% should be.

 

Have i erased something? Please be nice as first time i've ever filled a spreadsheet in.

 

Thanks

Sugar:p

Hi Sugar, How have you entered your data - did you enter it into the second sheet only (don't enter anything into the third sheet - it gets filled in automatically)? On the leftside enter your charges (in date order), filling in all the blue boxes for each charge. When you've done this, go back to the first statement again and pick out the interest debited and enter this into the righthand side blue boxes - again, fill out each blue box in the row with the relevant information (see earlier in this thread for a full explanation of what to put in and where to get it from). This should give you the correct info on the third sheet. If it doesn't, then I suggest starting afresh with a new copy of the spreadsheet, as you may have overwritten or deleted stuff from the yellow columns.

[Sugar-walsh]

hello wifeandi

 

Thanks for the advice, i did only fill in the second sheet as instructed and the 8% sheet didn't work. Think i will have to fill it in again... bummer as go to line 99. Oh well, it will be worth it i feel.

 

This site is great, for years i have felt a huge disappointment with my bank as being a single mum and a student meant life was often tough enough, without crazy charges which always seemed to come when already down. i now have the tools to strike back and regain my life.

 

Sugar:p

[thewifeandI]

Good for you! This site is empowering - feels good, doesn't it!

[Sugar-walsh]

Oh, it certainly does! It makes you sick when you think that the majority of the time I was stressed to the eyeballs because things got out of control due to the banks charges. Or when the family tax credit people got it wrong. Really wrong. That reminds me, think i will chase them for compensation... be good if anyone knows anything about this. I know it's a bit off the mark from this thread, but a lot of my troubles came from them. And now i'm feeling strong enough to take the world on!

 

Sugar:p

[taylormandy]

Hi sugar-walsh

Please can you let me know if you can sort this out, because i am getting exactly the same message in the 8% column (#VALUE!) and I've spent at least 8 hours today trying to sort it out.

Thanks

[taylormandy]

I've worked out what the problem is!!! When I originally entered my data on the spreadsheet I entered the date as e.g.12.04.2001 BUT the formula doesn't recognise this. It needs to be in 12/04/2001 format. It now works!!!!

(It's only taken 2 days to work this out!!!!)

[Giveitback]

Sorry, I must be dense. I've read this thread three times, but I still manage to get interest of £8.37 on my penalites, when the whole interest on a 4700 overdrawn balance is £34?

 

17/04/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,088.0027/04/200134.32-4,706.988.3719/04/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,108.0027/04/200134.32-4,706.988.3724/04/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,128.0027/04/200134.32-4,706.988.3727/04/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,148.0029/05/200130.65-4,376.148.6602/05/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,168.0029/05/200130.65-4,376.148.6603/05/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,188.0029/05/200130.65-4,376.148.66

[thewifeandI]

Sorry, I must be dense. I've read this thread three times, but I still manage to get interest of £8.37 on my penalites, when the whole interest on a 4700 overdrawn balance is £34?

 

17/04/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,088.0027/04/200134.32-4,706.988.3719/04/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,108.0027/04/200134.32-4,706.988.3724/04/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,128.0027/04/200134.32-4,706.988.3727/04/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,148.0029/05/200130.65-4,376.148.6602/05/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,168.0029/05/200130.65-4,376.148.6603/05/2001Excess O/D Charge£20.001,188.0029/05/200130.65-4,376.148.66

The amount of interest due charges will depend on the proportion of the overdrawn balance that is due to the charges at any time. I'd need to see the whole spreadsheet to be able to get a real idea of how it is made up.

[Sugar-walsh]

Dear taylormandy

 

So sorry i didn't get back to you yesterday.... glad to see you worked it out though. I guess that's the exact reason mine has done it, will try again later. Kind of gave up yesterday.

 

Sugar:p

[tamadus]

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.

 

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.

 

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.

[Giveitback]

I think that the spreadsheet gives you a way of figuring out the interest from the overall interest and the chharges you've paid.

 

You could also, (I think) take the interest rate you're charged, and multiply it by the amount of your charge for the duration of it.

£30 x 2.5 years x APR. For each charge. Thing is, I can't seem to find out my APR, so the spreadsheet should solve it for me.

[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.

[bram stoker]

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.

 

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.

 

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.

You don't need to worry about interest rates at all. Use the spreadsheet as normal. You will probably find that only a small amount of the interest relates to the charges.

The rules still apply where, if you are charged interest on a £200 bill, and £100 of that is made up of penalties that should never have been applied, then they owe you half the interest back.

[ROB_5]

Thanks Jeep.

 

Ive done 6 months worth and basically all the interest charges are down to the penalties.

 

Only 40 pages to do

 

Rob

 

UPDATE :

 

Finished filling in spreadsheet. The interest on charges only comes to £27.

I think this is because im only claiming for the last 17 months to keep my claim under £5000.

 

So,

 

Charges = £4500 Interest on charges = £27 Total = £4527

 

Does this look ok ?

 

 

Thanks

[bram stoker]

UPDATE :

 

Finished filling in spreadsheet. The interest on charges only comes to £27.

I think this is because im only claiming for the last 17 months to keep my claim under £5000.

 

So,

 

Charges = £4500 Interest on charges = £27 Total = £4527

 

Does this look ok ?

 

 

Thanks

It seems low, but if that's all they charged you, then that's all they charged you. At least you can claim all of it and not just a part of it.

[ROB_5]

Vampiress : I put estimated figure of previous charges in brown box (£3000), nothing changed in the total amount.

 

Does estimated figure have be done 1st?

 

thanks

 

rob

[bram stoker]

Vampiress : I put estimated figure of previous charges in brown box (£3000), nothing changed in the total amount.

 

Does estimated figure have be done 1st?

 

thanks

 

rob

It makes no difference. It would only affect the proportion of interest that relates to penalty charges. Your circumstances show that ALL the interest relates to penalties, so you are claiming all the interest. There's no more to claim.

 

Good luck Rob.

Vamp.

[ROB_5]

ok thanks

[onanblues]

Hello Vampiress,

 

I have been through all of this thread and solved my problem with what I should enter in the column INTEREST ON PENALTIES (I was incorrectly entering the interest RATE rather than the interest £value for that month).

 

However, I have read in this thread that for multiple charges in the same month I should leave the right hand side blank until the last charge in that month - is this true?

 

Rob

[bram stoker]

Onanblues - No.

 

See the notes within the spreadsheet. Just list the interest on the right-hand side. It doesn't matter if the dates do not align with the left-hand side.

 

Sorry, I must have missed that comment as I've been away from here for a while. Thanks.

[onanblues]

Thank you!

 

But...

 

So the right hand side only needs to have one entry (row) of interest charged and balance per month?

 

Rob

[bram stoker]

Thank you!

 

But...

 

So the right hand side only needs to have one entry (row) of interest charged and balance per month?

 

Rob

Yes. And just listed one under the other.

[garybews]

Due to a lot of queries regarding interest I have designed an Excel template that attempts to calculate a fair claim. It will not give a precise figure, but comes very close and shows the courts you have made an attempt. More notes are within the template itself.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=182. I also have versions of both spreadsheets available to use in Microsoft Works. Please email vampiress.bag@gmail.com for the Works versions.

 

Please ask in this thread if you have any problems with it, and either myself, or anyone else will try to help you.

 

This spreadsheet is freely given to help you. Please consider a donation to the site if you decide to use it so that we may continue to help you.

 

 

I have used your spreadsheet for calculation of penalty charges and interest but have noticed when I deleted the unnecessary rows of cells up to row 777 so as not to print them it altered the total of my interest on penalties figure?

[Nads]

In answer to your question my understanding is as follows:

 

1. Is correct, however you do not need to send list of charges just total refund amount.

 

2. Is correct sent list of charges if you want to, but also not necessary.

 

3. Court claim - This is where you need to ADD the 8% interest. I would advise you thoroughly do your homework and join the buddy system, as you can then bounce suggestions, queries and idea off each other.

 

GOOD LUCK