Loans: how can I make interest-free payments?

When using our Loan accounts feature, MoneyWiz asks you for some information and then creates an unique Scheduled transaction for you. This Scheduled transaction is unique because it has categories (regular transfers in MoneyWiz cannot have categories). What’s more, this Scheduled transfer has not just one but two categories: one for interest payment and one for principal. This means that this transfer is a split transaction between two categories.

If you wanted to make one of the payments an interest-free payment (interest equal to 0), you’ll notice that during the amount allocation to each of the categories (see Split transactions guide for more information), MoneyWiz will insist on assigning at least 0.01 to the category you want to make 0. This is because split transaction cannot involve a category (or account) that contributed 0 towards the split.

But there is an easy way to enter an interest-free payment for your loan. To begin, start entering a new transaction (either from inside an account or by using the sidebar buttons) and change the Expense transaction type (default) to a Transfer. Set the “From account” field to the account you want to draw money from while the “To account” field should be your Loan account. You’ll notice that as soon as you choose your Loan account as the “To account”, the transfer transaction entry field will show new field: Categories (with both interest and principal categories pre-selected for you).

If you want to make an interest-free payment simply head over to this Categories field and de-select the category you’ve designated for interest. This way the transaction is no longer considered a split but instead the full amount is devoted to the single category left selected.

You can do this with your Scheduled transfer created by Loan accounts feature too by going to Scheduled transactions section and modifying the Scheduled transfer. Just remember that if you click/tap on the Scheduled transaction and choose Pay, you’ll edit just this one instance of the Scheduled transaction you’re about to pay (leaving future payments unaffected). On the other hand, if you click/tap on the Scheduled transaction and choose Edit, you’ll edit the next and all future instances of this transfer.