[HCoop-Discuss] Deposit/balance policies

[Nathan Kennedy]

j.c.hallgren at juno.com wrote:
> I would agree with this concept, as I'd like to see any deposit kept separate so I know exactly at a glance where my day-to-day balance is at. Having the deposit, balance and total as three amounts viewable in portal should make keeping track of user's status quite easy, as if the deposit is not broken out, I'd have to keep that in mind when trying to determine if I need to add funds.  
>
> There have been times when I went below $10 but I've tried to keep it at least close to that when possible. There was a time when I believe I was negative, but that was when I just couldn't see any progress on new systems, and was holding back until I did. I wouldn't object to having to keep a deposit of somewhere around $15 (in my case), since that could be used as "overdraft protection" in a way, should my day-to-day bal get used up.
>
> -- staylor at ncf.ca (S. Taylor) wrote:
> My balance versus my deposit: what I see ($X.XX) is the
> strongest message of my status. I would prefer that balance
> to exclude my deposit. If I also know that a non-negative
> balance means I can leave the co-op and receive that deposit
> in full I have another incentive to maintain a positive
> balance. Perhaps the portal balance should include a notice
> "includes depoist of $X.XX."
>   
I would tend to echo staylor and hallgren that it is preferable for our 
users to separate out the balance in a separate account.  This is 
logically the same as considering it the first $X of the balance, but 
psychologically I think users tend will tend to respect a $0 barrier 
more and tend to protest more if they think "well I still have $25 left" 
or whatever.

The downside is that requiring a second account will require hacking the 
portal.  This points to the larger weaknesses of our single-entry portal 
accounting system, but a relatively simple hack should suffice for the 
meantime.  I propose we add this as a low-priority bug.  Perhaps I will 
have time to work on it myself later on.

I don't think that users should consider the deposit overdraft 
protection, even if it may ultimately function as that.  More 
importantly it secures the co-op against nonpaying members, to the 
benefit of everyone who does pay.  There are other ways that someone 
could rack up a debt besides nonpayment of course; for instance a 
runaway script that eats up bandwidth that goes over our allowance, etc.

-ntk