Personal Loan Calculator

How this result is built

Calculate a personal-loan payment and the APR after an origination fee taken from proceeds.

Personal loans often deduct an origination fee from the proceeds. You sign a note for the full amount, the payment is based on that note, and the cash you receive is smaller. APR rises because the same payment is buying less cash.

What the opening example is for

If your fee is added to the loan instead of deducted, include it in the note amount and set the fee percent to zero, then compare offers on payment alone.

The walkthrough below uses the numbers already sitting in Personal Loan Calculator. Press Calculate and the headline should match this page. Then put your own figures in. The math does not run until you press the button, and Clear hides the result.

What each field is doing

The “Note amount” line on Personal Loan Calculator starts at $10,000.00. Leave that figure only when it matches the statement, the quote, or the plan you are testing. Press Calculate after the edit so the chart and the schedule move with it.

Personal Loan Calculator treats “Interest rate” as its own entry, and the form opens with 11.50%. A round example is useful for learning the page. It is a poor substitute for the number on your own paperwork, so replace it and run the form again.

The remaining fields

Before you replace it, “Term” reads 36 on Personal Loan Calculator. The other fields stay put while you change this one. That is the clean way to see what this line is doing inside the result.

Look at “Origination fee” first if you are checking Personal Loan Calculator: the filled value is 5%. If the label is a rate, type the annual figure the contract uses. If it is money, type the amount that will actually move, not a rounded hope.

The opening result, line by line

Press Calculate on the opening form and Monthly payment is $329.76. That is the number the rest of this section is talking about.

Amount financed is $10,000.00 when you run the opening figures on Personal Loan Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

On this opening pass, cash you receive is $9,500.00. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

Personal Loan Calculator reports that origination fee is $500.00. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

APR including the fee is 15.09% when you run the opening figures on Personal Loan Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

On this opening pass, base payment is $329.76. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

How those lines were produced

Personal Loan Calculator reports that total interest is $1,871.38. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

Total paid is $11,871.38 when you run the opening figures on Personal Loan Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

On this opening pass, payoff time is 3 years 1 month. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

The payment is calculated on the full note. The APR rises because the fee reduces the cash you receive.

A second pass changes only “Note amount”, from $10,000.00 to $11,000.00. Monthly payment moves from $329.76 to $362.74. Nothing else on the form was edited, so the gap between those two results is the effect of that one field on Personal Loan Calculator. If the gap is tiny, this page is not very sensitive to that entry. If the gap is large, get that entry from a document before you plan around the result.

What this page will not claim

Personal Loan Calculator applies the balance, the rate, and the payment you type. A lender’s payoff letter can include a fee or a daily interest convention this form does not see. Use the letter when you are sending the final check.

Personal Loan Calculator stops at its own formula. When the next question is different, open APR Calculator (The rate that includes upfront fees.); Loan Calculator (A fixed payment, a rate, and the interest it creates.); Debt Consolidation Calculator (A lower payment can still cost more interest.). Do not add those results to this one as if they were the same kind of dollar.

Check the result before you use it

Start on Personal Loan Calculator by reading the labels, not the headline. The opening labels are Note amount ($10,000.00), Interest rate (11.50%), Term (36), Origination fee (5%). If a label is not the fact you have, the result cannot turn into that fact later. The illustration on the form lands on $329.76. When you press Calculate and see that same figure, the button and this explanation are using one formula.

Change one field at a time. Write down the headline, edit a single line, and press Calculate again. A large jump means that line carries the result. A line that does not move is a line the formula ignores, which is a reason to confirm you opened the right page. Personal Loan Calculator is built for one job: Note amount, fee, payment, and APR. The description on the page says the same thing in a sentence: Calculate a personal-loan payment and the APR after an origination fee taken from proceeds.

When the paperwork disagrees

Then hold the headline next to a source outside the site. That source might be a loan estimate, an account statement, a pay stub, or the public limit named in the methodology. A few cents of difference on a long schedule is ordinary rounding. A different rate, a fee you never typed, or a tax the form does not ask for is not rounding. Correct the input. Do not average the page with the paperwork.

When the outside source still disagrees, Personal Loan Calculator has reached the edge of what it will claim. It will not phone a lender, pull a county record, or apply a credit you left blank. Send the calculator name, every input, and the result you expected through the contact page if you think the formula itself is wrong. Until that is settled, read $329.76 as the output of the fields above and nothing else.

FAQs