Currently, account growth is specified as APY. I would like to be able to specify it as either APY or APR, whichever I choose. The difference between the two would come into play whenever PL has to subdivide its basic time unit (ie., a year) for some reason, such as for computing a half year’s growth on funds that are newly deposited into an account. With APY specified, PL would calculate the growth as it does now, using the corresponding six month APY, but with APR it would compute it as 1/2 the APR growth amount.

To illustrate, assume two 10K accounts, one with 10% APR, the other with 10% APY. In a full year, both grow by 1K and end up with 11K, but the accumulated growth at the end of the first six months is different: 488 for the APY account, 500 for the APR account. With the APR option PL would use the 500 as the half year growth for new funds deposited into an account, instead of the 488 it uses now.

To me this is more logical and intuitive, and easier to mentally check the computation as I zip through my account balances. Since APR = APY for PL’s basic time unit of a year, I don’t see the advantage in treating growth within the year as compounding.

But some may find the current method more intuitive, so I suggest allowing the user to choose either APY or APR.