Debt Progress with temporary rates?

Google Sheets
1

I was trying to use the Debt Progress solution, but I’ve run into a snag.

There was a government bill was passed this year, making student loan interest 0% and payments suspended til 12/31/2020. I tried to add a formula into the interest rate column:

=IF(TODAY()<DATE(2020,12,31),0%,6.8%)

Which worked, but it didn’t seem to make any difference in the payment schedule. In other words, no matter which interest rate I put in, it still recommended the minimum payment. In the ranking, it was 1 or 2. It seems like it doesn’t take into consideration that the interest rate is temporary (more interest would be saved if it’s paid down earlier).

I also have a credit card with an introductory rate that I transferred some debt onto, and I’m having a similar issue with how to get the Debt Progress Sheet to take that into account.

I’m hoping that makes sense. If not, I’m happy to answer questions! :slight_smile:

2

@sandybholt78 which payoff method are you using… snowball, avalanche, or ranked? Only the Avalanche method references the interest rate when recommending which card should be paid first. I believe the formulas are set up to where all of your debts will receive the minimum payment except the debt with the highest interest rate. Once that debt has been paid, it will move to the card with the next highest interest… ultimately working its way down to $0 debt.

3

Oh, I see what you mean - it only focuses on one account at at time. I thought it was a bit more sophisticated.

I was using the ranked method, but I had some of them tied (like 1,1,3,4,5,etc), hoping that it would focus on both #1s first.

Thanks for straightening me out. :slight_smile:

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