Set Up Tools
A One-time Setup
- Enter your income: Input all forms of income and their frequency
- Create a monthly budget: Create a budget comprised of your needs and planned expenses based on the MoneyPlan 50-70/10/20 Rule (70% on needs, 10% on credit card payment acceleration, and 20% to saved).
- Connect your bank accounts: Enter your bank account(s) login information, and your transaction feeds will be securely downloaded to MoneyPlan as READ-ONLY. Secured with AES 256-bit encryption, your bank accounts are linked to Finicity, a reliable platform with more than 15 years of experience. Read More…
- Personalize your plan: Set the duration of your plan in months, control your credit card usage limits., choose to accelerate either the credit card balance repayment or your savings.
- Enter your main credit card information. This is mandatory. This information will come from your credit card statement or agreement.
- Enter your store card information. This is optional. This information will come from your credit card statement or agreement.
Make Use of Tools
Transaction Debit:
Before you use your debit card, go to “Transactions – Debit Card” in the app to see how much you should spend on groceries, gasoline, cash withdrawal, Miscellaneous.
Transaction Check:
Before you issue a check, write it in the MoneyPlan app using the “Write a Check” feature. Enter amount, description and check number and select the bank account source (checking or savings). You can delete the check anytime, and your account balance will be reset to the most current amount. You will only be able to edit the check number, description and date emitted. You will not be able to edit the amount. To edit the amount, you will need to delete the check and write a new one. You can enter as many checks as you’d like in the limit of your bank account balance.
Checks, once emitted, may take several weeks or months before they post to your account. Not accounting for this expense early on may give a false balance projection on your account and false MoneyPlan calculations. This is why the MoneyPlan check feature is so helpful. Any check written in the app will be posted in your Checking Account Debit column to account for the emitted amount in your checking account balance before the check is cashed. Later, when your check is posted to your institution checking account, it will be removed from the app Checking Account Debit column to avoid duplicate transactions (one from the app and one from your bank institution).
Transaction Credit Card:
Before using your credit card, go to “Transactions – Credit Card” to see what your Minimum Safe Limit (Min.SL) and Maximum Safe Limit (Max.SL) are. MoneyPlan calculations are prepared to allow you to use your credit card wisely without compromising your saving objectives or your budget. For example, if your SL shows $300 while your Max.SL shows $1200, and your Available Credit is $2000, this means that it is safer to make a transaction less than or equal to $300, but you can also safely make a transaction worth $1200 or less without compromising your savings objectives or repayment capacity. These limits will be color coded green, yellow and red, respectively. We call them the traffic lights.
Follow the traffic lights as guidance to know what limit is recommended: Red means “don’t use”, yellow means “can be used if really needed,” and green means “safe to use.”
Emergency Fund:
If the Maximum Safe Limit of your credit card shows an amount that cannot permit you to satisfy a transaction, use your Emergency Fund. Click on the “Emergency Fund” button and enter the amount you need to use so that it is recorded.
Transaction Store Card:
Before you use your store card, go to “Transactions – Store Card” and select the store card you want to use to make the promotional transaction. Enter the promotion offered: maximum amount and maximum duration.
A color coding of green will display if you can afford the promotional offer based on your plan, or a color coding of red will appear if the promotion offer is outside your plan limits. In this case, different promotional credit options will be displayed for that card. MoneyPlan will display the best option based on:
- credit utilization ratio rule of thumb
- your budget and savings objectives
- spending power
MoneyPlan will guide you to choose the best promotional financing offer based on your current budget, savings objectives, credit utilization ratio and spending power. MoneyPlan will also calculate the minimum recommended monthly payment.
Repayment Credit Card:
Before making a payment on your credit card, go to “Payment – Credit Card” to see the minimum recommended payment that you can make. You must pay to your credit institution at least this amount.
Make the first payment on the 15th of each month and the second payment on the 30th of each month. One of these two payments will fall within the grace period after your credit statement has been issued. This will cover your payment due date. If not, then make an extra payment (the credit card minimum mandatory payment) to cover your due date.
Repayment Store Card:
Before making a payment on your store card, go to “Payment – Store Card” to see the minimum recommended payment that you can make. You must pay your credit institution at least this amount. Make a payment before the store card statement due date.
Credit Repayment Requirements:
- MUST make at least two payments per months on credit card.
- MUST pay at least the MINIMUM PAYMENT RECOMMENDED on credit card.
- MUST make at least one payment on store card.
- MUST pay at least the MINIMUM PAYMENT RECOMMENDED on store card.
- MUST make on-time payment before or on the due date for both type of cards.