OK, here's my story:
I've been using Money for about 8 months. Money 2002 came
bundled on my laptop. I started using the debt reduction
planner about 7 months ago. I set it all up, put my 10 or
so accounts (all credit cards) into it, and established
that I could pay $400 per month. The minimum payments
totaled to about $360, so this was fine. The software told
me to make the minimum payments on all but the card with
the highest APR, which was to get its minimum payment plus
whatever was left out of the $400. This made perfect
sense, and I started making and recording payments.
The next month, the planner told me to pay this card (with
the highest APR) a little more. The problem was, with all
the payments, the total was a little over $400, and that's
really all I can afford to pay each month. I realized it
was in the middle of the month, and figured the software
was a little confused by how much of that $400 was still
left to pay credit cards.
The next month it happened again, and this time I made
sure it was at the beginning of all the monthly payments.
It had me paying about $600 total. I did my own figuring
and just paid what I thought appropriate, totaling $400.
As you might have guessed, it kept getting worse. Soon, it
was telling me to pay $800 just to that one card, in
addition to making the other cards' payments. I upgraded
to Money 2004 Deluxe, thinking Microsoft may have solved
this problem. I was wrong. As of this past month, the
software wants me to pay $1100 to the one card, and I only
owe $950 total.
I've checked for help on this, have reset the planner
twice and have made sure all of the accounts are set up
properly (not charge cards, open, etc.). It's still the
same. Only the current month is messed up like this; the
following months' payments all total to $400 each. It
tells me I'll be out of debt by next year, which would be
nice, but I would like to have at least a good estimate of
when I'll REALLY be out of debt.
If anyone can help me figure this out, I'll... well, I'll
thank you. That's really all I'm willing to do for a
complete stranger.