Skip to content
Get started

Partner calculator draws, dates and what each hand pays.

Put in what a hand pays, how often, and how many hands there are. You get what each draw pays, the date of every draw, and what your own draw is worth. It recalculates as you type.

By EveryDolla teamHow these pages are checked

It is also the number of rounds, since each round pays one hand.

1 is the first draw. Throwing two hands? Put both, like 3, 9.

Banker's fee

A savings or loan rate you know. Leave it empty to skip.

Each draw pays10 rounds, weekly

J$100,000.00

Every week the banker collects J$100,000. The last draw is on .

  • Each round collectsJ$10,000 from each of 10 handsJ$100,000.00
  • Each hand pays inJ$10,000 for 10 roundsJ$100,000.00

Your draw: number 4 on . You pay in J$100,000 and receive J$100,000.00.

Right after your draw you are J$60,000.00 ahead of what you have paid in, and you still pay J$10,000 each week for 6 more rounds. That is a loan with no interest.

Who draws when

10 draws of J$100,000.00.

DrawDatePaid out
1J$100,000.00
2J$100,000.00
3J$100,000.00
4YoursJ$100,000.00
5J$100,000.00
6J$100,000.00
7J$100,000.00
8J$100,000.00
9J$100,000.00
10J$100,000.00
How we worked this out
  1. Each round collectsJ$100,000.00J$10,000.00 × 10 hands
  2. Each draw paysJ$100,000.00J$100,000.00, with no fee
  3. Each hand pays inJ$100,000.00J$10,000.00 × 10 rounds

Each round every hand pays the banker, and one hand draws the pot, so the number of rounds equals the number of hands. We found no official rule for how a partner is run, so these are the usual arrangements. Yours may differ, so check each term with your banker.

What a partner is

A partner, also called a pardner or a susu, is a way to save with a group of people you trust. Everyone pays the same amount into a pot on a set day. Each round one person takes the whole pot home. The order of draws is settled at the start, and the person who holds the money and keeps the record is the banker.

How the draw works

Say 10 people each pay J$10,000 a week. The pot is J$100,000 and it goes to one person every week for 10 weeks. Whoever draws first gets J$100,000 in week one and pays J$10,000 a week for the rest of the partner. Whoever draws last pays for nine weeks before they collect.

The money you pay in over the whole partner equals the money you draw, less the banker’s fee if there is one. What changes is the timing. An early draw is like a loan that charges no interest. A late draw is like savings that earn none. Our calculator shows which side of that your draw falls on, and with a yearly rate typed in it puts a J$ value on the difference.

The banker’s part

The banker collects the payments and hands out the pot on each draw date. Some bankers charge for it, either a flat amount or a share of each pot. Agree the fee before the first round and put it into the calculator, so each person can see what a draw really pays. If you are the banker, you hold other people’s money between collecting and paying out, so keep a written record of every round.

Risks

A traditional partner runs on trust. If a member stops paying after drawing, the others are left short, and there is no regulator to go to. We found no official rule from the Bank of Jamaica on how one is run. Before you join, ask who the banker is, whether you know the other members, and who covers a round that someone misses.

Be careful with any scheme that calls itself a partner and promises you more than you pay in. In a partner, a draw is the pot less the fee, which is never more than the hands paid in. A promise of extra money has to be paid for by people who join later.

Some credit unions and banks run partner plans of their own. We have not checked any lender’s terms, so ask the institution for its rules and any fee. To see where a partner fits next to the rest of your pay, try the budget calculator, where a partner hand goes under savings.

Questions

How does a partner work?

A group of people each pay the same amount to a banker every week, fortnight or month. Each round the banker hands the whole pot to one person, in an order agreed at the start. When every hand has drawn once, the partner is finished and everyone has paid in as much as they received, less any fee.

What is a hand?

One share in the partner. A person can throw more than one hand, and then they pay for each hand and draw once for each. A partner with 10 hands runs for 10 rounds.

Is it better to draw early or late?

It depends on what you need. An early draw gives you a lump sum now and you pay it back through the later rounds, with no interest. A late draw works like saving: you pay in first and collect at the end. Put a yearly rate into the calculator and it values your position at that rate.

What does the banker do?

The banker collects each round's payments, pays out the pot on the draw date and keeps the record. Some bankers take a fee from each draw. The calculator takes it off and shows what each draw pays after it.

Is a partner regulated?

We found no official rule or statement from the Bank of Jamaica about the traditional kind of partner. It runs on trust, so only join with people you know and ask who covers a round if someone does not pay.

Keep your partner in your budget free to use.

Your bank already sends you an alert for every purchase. Sign in and those same alerts come to EveryDolla, sorted and added up in J$.

Start free Free to use. No payment card.
From an NCB alert, 5:32 PM
Hi-Lo Food StoresGroceries · NCB ••4471J$8,240.50J$9,200 left this month