(Public) SNB - Financial Center

The Financial Center is an adjacent mod of SNBank that brings a physical bank to the game. Your Sims will now be able to access SNB options and more in-person. This keeps to that off-the-grid option where you don't need to use your Sim's cellphone for every SNB service. This mod will also usher in SimRealist Credit options we have planned for later this year. 

We are operating on a USE -> WORK -> OWN progression for all our venues. That means right now we are building the ability to USE a bank venue. Next, we will work on the ability for your Sim to WORK at a Bank and then OWN. 

To get started, you will need the main SNBank found here:

- itch:  https://simrealist.itch.io/snbank 

Optional Mods that will enhance your experience are:

-(MizoreYukii) Scarlet's SimCity Loans mod:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/mod-simcity-2-0-48521567 

-LittleMsSam's ATM Cards and Credit mod:  https://littlemssam.tumblr.com/post/175407172343/atm-cards-and-now-with-real-credit-function 

Summary of Changes

We added/changed the following:

• Multiple Account Support: added functionality compatible with the latest SNB update.
• Annual Thank You 2022: update Patron Thank You list. 

Before we get into the details of this new update, all of these features affect SNB Loans (current and future) ONLY! The Partner Loans (LittleMsSam's Credit Mod and Scarlet's SimCity Loans) are not affected by this process and follow the rules set by the respective mod creator.

FOR A REVIEW ON HOW TO PLACE A FINANCIAL CENTER LOT, PLEASE GO TOWARD THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

In version R|E 0.2.0, you met the Lewis Family. With this latest version of R|E and the Financial Center, we will learn of a new Sim looking to start the next chapter in her life. Meet Bristol Knight. 

She recently paid off her unsecured loan to finance some updates to her apartment while she worked through the Culinary Career Ladder. She is now at the top of her game as a Celebrity Check and looking to finally set down roots, start a family, and become financially independent. So while at the Financial Center, she went into a Loan Officer's office to apply and talk through her options for buying a home.

Previously her only options were to pull out an unsecured loan but she didn't like the interest rate associated with that. Her Loan Officer mentioned that SNBank now offers Mortgages at a much better rate for those looking to buy residential real estate. Bristol takes the plunge and requests a Mortgage of §40,000 with a §10,000 down payment (more than the recommended 20%) to make sure her application gets approved.

Unsecured Loans

Unsecured Loans are not bound or secured to any object or real estate. As a result, rates are normally higher than mortgages or other secured loans because the risk is higher to the Financial Institution. This mod sets this loan type with the following term options:

Mortgages

Version 0.3.0 and R|E version 0.3.0 allows your Sim to purchase Residential Real Estate with additional financing from SNBank. What this means is that your Sim should see lower rates set at only the longer terms to spread out those payments due to the secure nature of this transaction. This mod sets this loan type with the following term options:

New Application Process

When you would like your Sim to borrow an SNB Loan, you will send them off to their local Financial Center to apply with the usual Loan Officer option (Request Assistance from Loan Officer) and then Apply for a Loan. From there, you will enter how much you would like to borrow. The mod will check the Sim's financial standing or DTI to see if they can borrow that much or less based on Bank Policy/Criteria. Bank Policy requires the following in order to borrow from SNBank:

DEBT-TO-INCOME

The Household's Debt-to-Income cannot be more than 75% for Unsecured Loans and 43% for Mortgages. The mod takes into account the Household's income plus Household Wealth divided by the shortest loan term against how much outstanding SNB debt they have. So say the entire household makes a total weekly income of §5,000, and one of the household members has an SNB Loan with a weekly payment of §1,000. Their Liquid Assets of §25,000 in their accounts equates to §6,250 as Sim week. Taking the §1000 in debt owed divided by the §5000 in career income + the Household Wealth of §6.250, DTI would calculate as 0.08 or 8.89%. This is still within bank policy, so the Sim can borrow 66.11% more on an Unsecured Loan and 34.11% more with a Mortgage. Still with me? 😂 You can cheat with snbfc.dti to have the mod generate this figure without applying and being denied.

SNBANK ACCOUNT

The requirement to have a SNBank account with at least §200 for loan fees still applies. This is where the loan will disburse to as well.

DEROGATORY MARK

If anyone in the Household defaults or their loan goes into collection, no potential applicants in that Household will be able to get a loan until the Mark has been removed. It is removed 2 Sim weeks after the loan in Collection is satisfied.

Now that Bristol has a Pre-Approval in place at her local SNBank, she makes her Wishlist with her Realtor to find a property that fits her now set budget. After many home tours, she finally narrowed it down to a two-bedroom and one bath cottage that has enough land to expand upon when needed and in a spot that should hold in value if she ever needs to sell for something else. 

Bristol and her Realtor head off to see if they can negotiate this property down since it is just a wee bit more than the Purchase Price she said she was looking for in a home. This can happen to anyone, and it's a good thing that she has such a good Realtor. 

So happens that the Seller's Realtor wasn't up to par against Bristol's Realtor so they were able to negotiate down the price lower than the value of the home and also the proposed Purchase Price she gave the Bank!

All Bristol has left to do is complete Closing through the R|E system by going into Escrow with her Mortgage.

Loan Payments and Payoff

BILL CALCULATIONS

The calculated weekly payment amount displayed before you Accept the Agreement is the loan amount divided by the term of the loan without consideration of interest accrued. So the actual bill amount will always be more than the quoted payment amount. Loan Paydown, Interest Accrued, and Late Fees are part of 3 separate billing calculations to keep things as realistic as possible. Meaning the more you pay down the loan, the lower the amount of interest you will have to pay. So to keep things from getting too complicated, all three bill categories have been separated for your mathematical delight. 😂

• Weekly Payment Amount = Loan Amount / Term Selected (4, 8, or 12 weeks)
• Daily Interest Accrued or Per Diem (starting on Day 0) = (Interest Rate / Term) x Current Loan Amount
• Late Fee Amount (when a loan is past due for a week and every week thereafter) = Billed amount x .04 (or 4%).

LOAN PAYMENTS

On the day the loan is due, your Sim will receive a phone call to notify you of this. To make a loan payment, your Sim will need to go to the Bank to take care of this bill. Once at the bank, loan payments are taken by the Bank Tellers with the new option called SNBank Loan Payments. After selecting which account you would like to pay from, a pop-up will appear to show you how much is due. Future updates will allow this new bill category and calculation to show in SNB-Bills.

LATE FEES

If your Sim should ever be late, a late fee of 4% of the billed amount will be applied to your Sim's next weekly Bills, not your Loan Bill as a fee. You do not need SNB - Bills in order for this late fee to populate properly. It should show up in EA's bills instead of this mod isn't present.

Collections

If your Sim continues to be late after 4 missed bills, their loan will default and go into Collections. As a result:

• Repossessions will take place (see the warning at the top of this post)
• A Collection Fee will be assessed
• The Household will be unable to borrow again until the Collected Loan has been paid off and the Sim's Derogatory Mark has fallen off their Credit profile.
• Payments will only be available by way of the mailbox.
• Mortgages: On the 6th week of consecutive non-payment, the debtor Sim's Mortgage will go into Foreclosure

Annual Thank You 2022

In December, we announced that we were planning to do another Annual Thank You gift since we liked offering this to our long-term patrons in 2019. We stepped it up a notch by removing the listing of Patrons from the mod's Welcome Notice and put it in a new object, the Patron Plaque. This Plaque is the reuse of EA’s Might Plaque of Honor that came with Get to Work. We customized it to now show the Financial Center logo and make it base game compatible. You can find this Plaque under the Generic Community Objects or just by searching SNBank Plaque.

This Plaque not only holds all the Active Patrons of a year or more as of Oct. 1, 2021, listing but also a new simple investment feature! Your Sim can now "invest" in the Financial Center by buying shares. Depending on how many shares Sim has will determine how much dividend income they will receive each week. We have it set to §125 dividends a week per share (1 share = §2,500). This Dividend will automatically deposit into the Sim's SNB account. This amount will never fluctuate since we didn't want to add in another complex system yet.

PATRON THANK YOU LEVELS

In the Thank You! option, Patrons that were with us for a year or more are listed according to how long they've been with us and then by name.

Placing or Creating a Bank Lot

***NO CHANGES WERE MADE ON THE LOTS ATTACHED TO THIS DOWNLOAD. IF YOU ALREADY HAVE THEM INSTALLED, YOU DO NOT NEED TO UPDATE THEM.***

In order to start with this mod, you will need a lot with the Sim National Bank Lot Trait. This can be any type of lot, even residential, but I wouldn't recommend that at this time. If you would like just a bank, you can use the Generic lot type with this lot trait. I also made a test bank for you, so you don't have to build one immediately. It will provide an example of what you will need for each function of the bank. You can then build whatever kind of bank you would like. To add my test bank branch to your game, you can download the tray files below and put them in your Tray folder or look up the EA Account ID: SimRealist.

Objects you will need to have a complete bank are:

• A Bank Computer (Account Manager) Desk Station (found in Community -Generic Items)
• A Bank Teller Desk and Station (found in Community -Generic Items)  
• A Credit Computer (Loan Officer) Desk Station (found in Community -Generic Items) 
• A Bank Lobby (be sure to have a good size one and only have one entrance and exit so you can attempt to control the NPC traffic).
• (Optional) SNB Bank Sign (Found in Wall Decor)

Additional Custom Banks by KateEmerald

I've been watching KateEmerald's builds for a while and all the great work she has done so far for the Sims Community. I reached out to her to assist me in building some custom Bank Venues for everyone to start off with since I wouldn't say I'm architecturally inclined (though I tried with the Test Branch. 😉), and she happily agreed! In fact, you may see more of her work in the future as we add more venues to go with our mods. Below are your options to download. They all only require the Base Game and sit on 30x20 lots for ease of use. Each is made to match the World they are named for. I've also made these lots available via the Gallery under the SimRealist ID. 

Please check out KateEmerald here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfSA8fw-AoVckUmrkBKR4dw 

If you share your build to the Gallery, add #snb to your lot description for others to easily find your lot.

How to Use the Bank

ACCOUNT MANAGER

If this is the first time a Sim has used SNBank (the main mod) and they don't have an account, you want to start at an Account Manager's office. There you will be able to Inquire about what Bank Products are available and Open either an SNB account or buy a LittleMsSam ATM Card. You will need an SNB Account in order to use other Bank services.

In addition to opening an SNB Bank Account, you can also close one with an Account Manager when you no longer need SNB services or open more SNB Accounts for the rest of your household. 

From there, your Sim can either go to a Bank Teller or a Loan Officer. This depends entirely on your Sim's needs at the moment. 

BANK TELLER

A Bank Teller will assist your Sim with several services, starting with the basic deposit and withdrawal and making your Student Loan Payment. You also have two new options that allow you to send money to other Sims by way of a limited SimoleonGram or an unlimited Wire. Both come with a fee. What this means is that SNB will require an update where we cap the Send Money feature so that you have to go to the bank to send more than a certain amount with Bank Approval. You know to protect you from future fraud and all. 😉

LOAN OFFICER

A Loan Officer is available to assist with your Sim's Credit needs. Right now, you need one or both of the Third Party mods we reference LittleMsSam's Credit module of her ATM mod and (MizoreYukii) Scarlet's SimCity Loans mod. To get started, click a Loan Officer NPC, and the Credit UI will guide you through whichever product you choose.

Conflicts/Issues/Notable Items Observed:

• If you use our test branches, there have been instances in which it will switch back to the original lot type. All you need to do is switch it back in build mode to what you would like or keep it as is. Leave the lot and come back with your Sim to activate the Bank.
• Be sure to have a good size lobby; Bank Customer NPCs have been known to sit where they shouldn't. With that being said, you should bypass Building Fire Codes and only have one entrance/exit to the building as well. 
• In order for Tellers to show, you will need a bar stool with the Teller's Desk.

Compatible With: 

Patch 04/16/2024 PC: 1.106.148.1030 / Mac: 1.106.148.1230

Credits

• Victor Andrade: SR Mod Developer 
• Nichole: SR Mod Producer
• roBurky: SR SNBank Mod Developer
• Kate Emerald: SR Animator
• scripthoge (Mod The Sims) for assistance in the development of these additions
• EA's Might Plaque of Honor Plaque
• TURBODRIVER and frankk: for The One Py To Fix Them All script to mass update our mods for Patch 12/05/2023 PC: 1.103.250.1020 / Mac: 1.103.250.1220
  

Thanks to Scarlet & LittleMsSam for letting us side-load their mod to give everyone an enhanced experience.

Thanks to the SR Linguists Team

STRINGS INCLUDED:

• Simplified Chinese
• Czech
• Dutch
• French
• Italian (with additional assistance from MassimoSims)
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Portuguese (BR)
  
• Portuguese (PT)
  
• Russian
• Spanish

TOOLS USED:

• Sims4Studio
• Zerbu: Mod Constructor (V4)
• Blender

Mod Support/Assistance:

If you are experiencing an issue with an SR mod, please head over to our Discord server channels: simrealist-mod-support or patreon-mod-support (https://discord.gg/97hyxrM). 

To connect a Patreon Account to Discord for support on Patreon versions, please follow these instructions: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/212052266-Get-my-Discord-role