40% v 20% on Expert Fee

[aperson]

If you pay a penny in expert fee this week the buffer you have at 20% will be gone forever.

So tryingtotrade needs to decide whether to keep permanently below £100k Gross Profit to keep his huge buffer and not pay any Expert Fee for 8 years; or charge ahead to maximise Gross Profit but will forever more pay 40% above £100k or 20% above £25k.

What a load of shit the Expert Fee rules are.

It had kinda escaped me that you would lose your buffer if you go up a level pay expert fee then drop back down again. However Betfair say they wave the first payment when you increase rates saying, "In the first instance you qualify for the new higher rate, a grace period of one week will be given before you are moved. This will be a one-time goodwill gesture - should you move between rates in the future, then the new rate will come into effect from the following week of activity."

So does this mean tryingtotrade loses their buffer at the end of this week if a profit is made or will it only apply from the second week of being on 40% onwards? I note however the screenshot shows a 40% rate so maybe it is from this week.

It seems so much harder to understand the ins and outs than it should be.

[tryingtotrade]

So, was terrible punting at the French Open and made a loss last week and dropped below the limit again as 52 weeks ago I had a better week. The huge buffer of 700k shows again as well, bit confusing to be honest.
This week looks bad again but obviously my goal is to improve so I would hope to get over the limit again eventually so I will just have to pay the difference to 40% or what would you do in my situation.
Was thinking to have a big enough bet on a high odds long shot to stay under 100k and if one wins eventually accept to be on the 40% rate the week after that as that seems good value if that makes sense but then it’s likely making me lose more.

expert fee.png

[jamesedwards]

So, was terrible punting at the French Open and made a loss last week and dropped below the limit again as 52 weeks ago I had a better week. The huge buffer of 700k shows again as well, bit confusing to be honest.
This week looks bad again but obviously my goal is to improve so I would hope to get over the limit again eventually so I will just have to pay the difference to 40% or what would you do in my situation.
Was thinking to have a big enough bet on a high odds long shot to stay under 100k and if one wins eventually accept to be on the 40% rate the week after that as that seems good value if that makes sense but then it’s likely making me lose more.

expert fee.png

If it wasn't for your huge buffer I would say push on. But if I understand things correctly then that £780k buffer is worth 7 years of fee-free trading as long as you always stay below £100k rolling GP, and is therefore worth protecting.

£1920 per week fee free = £99.8k per year.
£3200 per week @ 40% Expert Fee = £99.8k per year.

How much time per £ do you spend at your PC?
> If fully manual then you could take half the week off and make the same money.
> If mainly autonomous then the plan to stake your 'excess' each week on a very high odds bet seems reasonable to me. Backing a couple of grand on a 100/1 shot every week sounds kinda fun too.