Terms of use

Using the site

These terms are the agreement between you and the operator of Do Not Pay It Off (“we”, “us”), the calculator at donotpayitoff.com and the pages, emails and accounts that go with it. By using the site you agree to them. If you don’t, please don’t use it. The privacy policy explains what we do with your data.

You must be old enough to enter a contract where you live, and in any case at least 16.

An estimate, not advice

The calculator shows what could happen under the assumptions on the methodology page and the numbers you enter. It doesn’t know your whole situation, and we are not your broker, financial adviser, tax adviser or lawyer.

• The results are estimates. Treasury prices are worked out from a yield curve, not quoted, and yields, tax rules and your own circumstances change.
• A money market fund is not insured or guaranteed, and its yield can change. Treasury bills and STRIPS can lose value if you sell before they mature.
• Nothing here is an offer or a recommendation to buy or sell a security, or to prepay or keep a mortgage.
• You make your own decisions. Check the numbers, read your loan documents and talk to a qualified adviser before you act.

Accounts

You can use the calculator, download the CSV and email yourself a plan without an account. An account (an email link, a password, Google or Apple) lets you save scenarios, up to 50, and re-run them on today’s rates. To save, your email address must be verified, or you must sign in through Google or Apple.

• Give accurate details and keep your sign-in secure. You’re responsible for what happens under your account.
• One person, one account. Don’t share it or let someone else use it.
• You can delete your account at any time on the Account page, which deletes your saved scenarios with it. What happens to other records is in the privacy policy.

Emails and messages

When you ask us to email a plan, use an address that is yours or whose owner has agreed. The plan arrives once; occasional updates arrive only if you opted in, and every email explains how to stop them. There are daily limits on how many plans and messages one address or connection can send, to keep the service available for everyone.

Messages you send us are yours. You allow us to read, store and reply to them, and to use them to improve the site. Please don’t send sensitive personal or financial details.

Acceptable use

Please don’t:

• break the law or use the site to help someone else break it;
• try to get around the bot checks or daily limits, send automated or bulk requests, or scrape the site in a way that strains it;
• probe, attack or try to get unauthorised access to the site, its servers, other people’s accounts or data;
• send spam, malware or anything abusive, or use the contact form or plan emails to reach people who haven’t asked to hear from you;
• pretend to be someone else, or misstate who you are;
• copy the site, or present its results as your own advice or as a product of ours.

If you do, we may block your access, remove content or close your account, and report unlawful activity where we have to.

Data from others

Treasury yields come from the Federal Reserve’s H.15 release through FRED, mortgage averages from Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (reprinted with permission), and the SWVXX yield from Charles Schwab, entered by hand. They can be late, revised or wrong, and we don’t promise they are complete or current.

We are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, Freddie Mac or Charles Schwab. Their names are used only to say where the data comes from, and they belong to their owners.

Our content and your results

The site, its design, text and code belong to us or our licensors. You may use the site and the results, plans and CSV files it gives you for your own personal purposes. Please don’t republish or resell the site’s content, or build a competing service on it, without asking us first.

No warranty

The site is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no promise, express or implied, that it will be accurate, complete, uninterrupted or error-free, that the results suit your purpose, or that the site or its emails will reach you. This includes the implied promises of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

Limit of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, or for lost profits, savings, investment returns or data, that comes from using the site or not being able to, even if we were told it could happen. This includes any loss from a decision you make using the results, such as paying down a mortgage or buying securities.

Our total liability to you for any claim about the site will not be more than what you paid us to use it in the twelve months before the claim. The site is free, so that is nothing.

Nothing in these terms limits a liability that can’t be limited by law, such as for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or takes away rights you have as a consumer under the mandatory law where you live.

Changes and ending

We may change, pause or stop any part of the site at any time, and we may update these terms. When we do, we’ll change this page and say so on it. If you keep using the site after a change, you accept the new terms. You can stop using the site whenever you like, and delete your account on the Account page. The parts of these terms that by their nature should continue, such as the disclaimers and the limit of liability, do so.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of the place where the site’s operator is established, without its conflict-of-law rules. Courts there can hear disputes about them, except where the mandatory law where you live gives you the right to go to your own courts.

Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected] or the contact form.