Personal Loan Calculator
Find your monthly payment and the true cost of a personal loan, including the origination fee, and compare two offers.
Offer A
Offer B (optional)
Results
| Item | Value |
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Offer details
| Item | Offer A | Offer B |
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Quick Answer
A $10,000 personal loan at 11% for 36 months costs about $327.39 a month. With a 5% origination fee taken from the loan, you receive $9,500, so the real APR is about 14.58%. Compare offers by total cost and APR with the fee, not by the interest rate alone.
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Table of Contents
How This Personal Loan Calculator Works
Enter how much you want to borrow, then the rate, term and fee for each offer. The calculator shows the monthly payment, the full cost and the APR once the fee is included. Leave the Offer B rate empty to check just one offer.
Quick explanation: total cost = interest + origination fee.
- Origination fee: often 1% to 10%, taken from the money you receive.
- APR with fee: the yearly rate on the cash you actually get.
- Compare: a lower rate with a high fee can cost more.
Core Formulas
- Monthly rate: r = interest rate ÷ 12
- Monthly payment: M = P × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r) ^ −n)
- Total interest: M × n − P
- APR with fee: the rate where the payments repay P − fee over n months
P is the loan amount and n is the number of months. The APR with fee is found step by step, as there is no simple formula.
Worked Example
You borrow $15,000 at 9% for 60 months, with a 4% origination fee.
- Monthly payment = $311.38
- Total interest = $3,682.52
- Fee = $600, so you receive $14,400
- Total cost = $4,282.52
- APR with fee = 10.76%
What Changes Your Loan Cost
- Credit score: better credit usually means a lower rate and fee.
- Term: a longer term lowers the payment but adds interest.
- Fees: check for origination, late and prepayment fees.
- Debt-to-income ratio: lenders check how much of your income goes to debt.
Frequently Asked Questions
It uses the loan amount, the monthly interest rate and the number of months in the fixed-rate payment formula.
A one-time lender fee, often 1% to 10% of the loan. It is usually taken from the money you receive.
The APR includes the fee, so it shows the cost of the cash you actually receive.
It lowers the monthly payment, but you pay more interest in total.
This one adds the origination fee, the APR with fee and a side-by-side comparison of two offers.
References & Sources
| Source | Used For | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia, Origination fee | How lender fees work. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origination_fee |
| Wikipedia, Annual percentage rate | How APR includes fees. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_percentage_rate |