UMBC CMSC201, Computer Science I, Fall 1994 Section 0101, 0102 and Honors

Project 1

Due: Monday, October 3, 1994

Objective:

The main objective of this assignment is to make sure that everyone has learned enough about C and the UNIX system to write a simple program with a loop, compile it, run it and turn in the program using submit201.

Assignment:

Write a program which helps the user determine the number of months needed to pay off a credit card debt if the user pays only the minimum payment every month. We will use the minimum payment policy of LOANShark Visa:

The monthly interest rate is 1.5 percent (about 19.56 annual percentage rate).
At the end of each month, a finance charge (interest rate times outstanding balance) is added to the outstanding balance to yield the end-of-month balance.
The minimum payment is 3 percent of the end-of-month balance or 13 dollars, whichever is greater. However, if the calculated minimum payment exceeds the end-of-month balance, then the entire balance is simply paid off (i.e., the minimum payment is the end-of-month balance).

Your program should ask the user for the amount of his/her purchase, then compute and print out for each month the finance charge, the end-of-month balance and the minimum payment. When the the credit card bill is finally paid off, printout the amount of time it took in years and months. (See sample run below.)

What to turn in:

When you are sure that your program is properly documented and that it is working correctly and assuming that you already have a directory called bin in your account, you should use the following command to copy the submit201 command to your account:

% cp ~chang/pub/cs201/submit201 ~/bin/submit201

Then you can submit your project by typing submit201 followed by the name of your project. For example, if your project was called project1.c, type:

% submit201 project1.c

This command simply mails your project to the address {\tt chang@gl.umbc.edu} and sends a copy of what you sent back to you. You can confirm what you have sent by reading your own mail. In addition, mail messages confirming the receipt of your programs will be sent out periodically, roughly once a day. Please do not use any other mail programs (e.g., elm, pine, mime, etc.). In particular, do not include your project as a MIME attachment from pine.

Late Policy Reminder:

This project is due by midnight on Monday, October 3, 1994. We will use the system clock as the final arbiter of time and date. If you turn in your project after the due date, a 4% penalty will be assessed. The penalty doubles every 24 hour period, including the weekend. For example, if you turn in the project on Friday, October 7, a 32% penalty will be assessed.

Sample Run:

The following is a sample run where the user entered 500 dollars for the initial purchase. The monthly report for the months 8 through 54 were removed for brevity (your program should report all the months).

LOANShark Visa, payment chart.
Enter initial balance: 500.0

Month 1:
   Finance charge = $7.50      
   End-of-month balance = $507.50    
   Minimum payment = $15.22     

Month 2:
   Finance charge = $7.38      
   End-of-month balance = $499.66    
   Minimum payment = $14.99     

Month 3:
   Finance charge = $7.27      
   End-of-month balance = $491.94    
   Minimum payment = $14.76     

Month 4:
   Finance charge = $7.16      
   End-of-month balance = $484.34    
   Minimum payment = $14.53     

Month 5:
   Finance charge = $7.05      
   End-of-month balance = $476.86    
   Minimum payment = $14.31     

Month 6:
   Finance charge = $6.94      
   End-of-month balance = $469.49    
   Minimum payment = $14.08     

Month 7:
   Finance charge = $6.83      
   End-of-month balance = $462.23    
   Minimum payment = $13.87     
...

Month 55:
   Finance charge = $0.33      
   End-of-month balance = $22.18     
   Minimum payment = $13.00     

Month 56:
   Finance charge = $0.14      
   End-of-month balance = $9.31      
   Minimum payment = $9.31      

Duration: 4 years and 9 months