Halb Tax Plus calculator

Michal Bryxí

Hello fellow SBB users and fans of Halbtax Plus 👋

I’ve often found it tricky to decide which Halbtax Plus (or GA) offer best suits my travel habits. So, out of curiosity, I built a little spreadsheet that helps me compare the different options based on actual ticket purchases.
If you’re facing a similar question, feel free to use and share it:

👉 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aWNNgNPyGBK6nf3_T2nYgJmZCfskO-bF9JC1EJbkn5M/edit?usp=sharing

But this got me thinking: Wouldn’t it be great if SBB offered something like this directly inside the app or online account?

Since SBB already has access to purchase and travel history, it could give users a quick suggestion like:
🧠 “Based on your recent trips, the Halbtax Plus __ offer could save you CHF __ per year.”

Of course it wouldn’t be 100% perfect, but it could still be a super helpful decision-making tool — especially for those switching between occasional travel, Halbtax, and GA.

SarinaS

Good Morning Michal Bryxí

Thank you very much for your suggestion.

You can give us a feedback based on your idea.

I wish you all the best.

Greetings,
SarinaS

RedBaron

Michal Bryxí
You actually don’t need such a complex spreadsheet, just the break-even points need to be calculated:

HTP 1000: From >800.- ticket costs per year (obvious)
HTP 2000: From >1875.- ticket costs per year (=1500 ./. 80%, you start gaining more than the HTP 1000 20% discount with >1875.- tickets)
HTP 3000: From >2800.- ticket costs per year (=2100 ./. 75%, you start gaining more than the HTP 2000 25% discount with >2800.- tickets)
GA Adults: From approx. >5500.- (similar calculation as above considering the 30% HTP 3000 discount and deducting the yearly cost for the Half Fare Travelcard/Halbtax. However this break-even point is ‘fuzzy’ depending on the number of expensive mountain rides such as Jungfraujoch: With a GA, you’re still paying 50% on top of the GA costs, with the HTP3000, you also use that credit with its 30% discount)

So with 2202.- estimated yearly ticket costs according to your spreadsheet in the ‘yearly calculation’ tab, the HTP 2000 is the best deal (considering that you’ll need to ‘top it up’ approx. every 10-11 months).

RomanoS

HI Michal Bryxí

I like the way you interact with the SBB Community.
Do not hesitate to get in touch with us with more informations, also regarding other experiences 🙂
Best regards and a lovely day!

BR
Romano

Michal Bryxí

SarinaS Thanks! Already did. Happy to see some more transparent way for users to assess.

Michal Bryxí

RedBaron Sweet. I don’t have an opinion on how do people get to the information. Albeit having a +- slider directly in SBB app showing the customer what is a good choice for them would be way better UX than your or mine solution.

The catch for me are the breaking points. If I’d pay, in average, anything between CHF 1500 and CHF 2000 per year, it’s not easy to gauge where the breaking point for bigger abo is. I’m a visual person, so graph it is 🙂

mdx21

RedBaron
The spreadsheet was too complex, but I think your calculation is too simple. ;-) The reason your answer is wrong is that the discount is not evenly distributed across the term duration. A HTP 1000 is exactly the same as ‘no HTP’ for the first 800 CHF and only then the discount starts to kick in. The same for the other HTPs…
This post gives the correct thresholds IMO:
https://community.sbb.ch/d/22771-tipp-hilfe-für-die-optimale-auswahl-von-halbtax-plus

Michal Bryxí

mdx21
First: Rude. That’s not a nice tone you’re using there.
Second: He? Did you take a look at the graphs? Or the data for that matter? It is exactly doing that “first N CHF you will get no discount and then you will get ‘free’ money”. That’s exactly the premise it’s based on.
Third: From the graph you can infer even the breakpoints defined in the post linked. If you follow the “without HTP” line to the CHF amount the post suggests (CHF 1700 in one example), then a vertical line down will point exactly to the point where the two ABOs cross and one gets more advantageous over the other. The same can be done the other way around: Find a place where the ABOs cross, and extend line upwards to find respective point on “without HTP” line and you will get a value at which it’s advantegous to swap the ABOs. See image below.

I do like the simplicity of the linked article, which is, for sure, way easier to follow than my graph-app, for some. But I still think that there would be a tremendous value for SBB to implement this type of explanation directly into their app as this forum is more … nerdy side of the userbase and for sure does not contain majority of the users.

RedBaron

mdx21
If the threshold / break-even point for the HTP1000 vs. 2000 decision of 1700.- according to the other post would be correct, the yearly/monthly/daily costs of the two packages would be exactly the same, agree?

So let’s verify with those 1700.- ticket purchases within a year:
HTP 2000: Expires every 365 days with 300.- unused credit/bonus, therefore needs to be renewed every 365 days. Costs: 4.11 per day (1500 / 365), 125.- per month, 1500.- per year.
HTP 1000: Expires every 214 days because of being used up (assuming regular/continuous ticket purchases with smaller amounts i.e. by commuting), therefore needs to be renewed every 214 days (= 365 / 1700 × 1000).
Costs: 3.74 per day (800 / 214), 113.70 per month, 1364.49 per year. Oops, that’s about 135.- less per year.

(q.e.d., as my former math teacher used to say)

mdx21

Michal Bryxí To #1: I am sorry for coming across as rude. My first sentence was meant to be ironic by building on RedBaron’s comment that claimed your spreadsheet being too complex, while his calculations is much simpler … Anyway, that did not work out, my apologies for that. To #2: I was not referring to your spreadsheet/graph, but only to RedBaron’s calculations, to which I still disagree. (In fact, I made my own graph without looking at yours, coming to the same conclusions, which made me write my comment in the first place.)

Michal Bryxí

RedBaron

The original assumption of breaking point is IMO correct, but I do believe that the math you laid out does not math-out.

The even breaking point of CHF1700 is used as a baseline of a ticket price per day and need to be adjusted for when given HTP expires. As at that point the customer will have to pay the full price. Therefore simple example for HTP1000 vs HTP2000 breaking point is:

The price commuter would pay per day in average per year: 1700 / 365 = 4.65
With HTP 2000 person would in sum pay per year: if(4.65 * 365 > 2000) { /* more than 2000, not important now */ } else { 1500 }
This will make the person pay exactly HTP_2000 = CHF 1'500.00
With HTP 1000 person would in sum pay per year: if(4.65 * 365 > 1000) { 800 + ( 4.65 * 365 - 1000 ) } else { /* not important now */ }
- This will make the person pay exactly HTP_1000 = CHF 1'497.25 (since we rounded the avg price per day above, the value is tiny bit different

Since HTP_1000 == HTP_2000, we’ve proven that, indeed, the breaking point between HTP 1000 and HTP 2000 is exactly CHF 1'700.

If you still disagree, please do fork my sheet and adjust the formula so that the math works in a way you think is correct and we can discuss over that.

Furthermore: This even more proves that SBB should provide a way for users to +- gauge the best breaking points, as even people nerding out about this can’t agree on the correct values and someone is making not optimal decisions based on their calculations.

RedBaron

Michal Bryxí The even breaking point of CHF1700 is used as a baseline of a ticket price per day and need to be adjusted for when given HTP expires. As at that point the customer will have to pay the full price.

And that’s exactly where we differ:
Most HTP customer will not stop using it after exactly 365 days, but keep using it longer and renew it immediately when it’s expiring (either because the credit is used up, or after 1 year involving losing some bonus).
Therefore that point when the customer will pay full price again will not occur.

Michal Bryxí

mdx21 Ah-so 🙂 All good. I do ofen post snarky comments and then weird things happen when people don’t get my sentiment 🙂