Loans & Debt
Borrowing is priced in a way that hides its cost — a rate that ignores fees, a minimum payment that barely touches the balance. These calculators show what a debt actually costs and how quickly it can be cleared.
Calculators in Loans & Debt
- Loan CalculatorPayment and total interest on any fixed-rate loanCalculate
- Personal Loan CalculatorMonthly cost and total interest on a personal loanCalculate
- APR CalculatorThe true annual cost once fees are includedCalculate
- Debt PayoffAvalanche versus snowball payoff orderCalculate
- Credit Card PayoffHow long a balance takes, and what it costsCalculate
- Credit Card InterestWhat carrying a balance costs, per day and in totalCalculate
- Minimum PaymentHow long the minimum takes, and what freezing it savesCalculate
- Balance TransferWhether the fee is worth it, and what the promo leaves behindCalculate
- Credit UtilizationOverall and per-card, and what moves eitherCalculate
Other categories
- Salary & PaycheckWhat you actually take home, and what an offer is really worth.
- Mortgage & Real EstateMonthly payment, affordability, refinancing and equity.
- Investing & SavingsHow capital grows, and what a contribution changes.
- Auto FinanceFinancing, leasing, and what a car costs to keep.
- Business & AcquisitionWhat a business earns, what it is worth, what it costs to buy.
About loans & debt
Every fixed instalment loan — a car, a personal loan, a consolidation — is the same piece of arithmetic. A payment large enough to cover the interest accruing on the balance, plus enough principal to clear it by the end of the term. Change the rate, the term or the amount and the payment moves; the formula does not.
What varies is what a lender calls things. The interest rate prices the borrowing. The APR is meant to include the fees as well, which is why it is the number worth comparing between offers and the rate is not. A loan with a lower rate and higher fees can cost more than one with the opposite.
Debt with several balances is a different problem again. Once the minimums are covered, where the spare money goes decides both the total interest and how long it takes. The avalanche order is always cheaper; the snowball order clears individual debts sooner. Which is better depends on whether the constraint is arithmetic or motivation, and the calculator prices both rather than recommending one.
What goes wrong here
Each of these costs real money, and each is avoidable once it is named.
Comparing rates instead of APRs
The rate prices the money. The APR is supposed to price the money and the fees. Two offers are only comparable on the second, and the gap between them is what the lender is charging you to arrange it.
Extending the term to fix the payment
A longer term always lowers the payment and always raises the total. It is a real option when cash flow is the binding constraint, and an expensive habit when it is not.
Paying minimums on a credit card
A minimum payment is calculated to keep the balance alive, not to clear it. On a high enough rate it can fail to cover the interest, at which point the balance grows while you pay.
Questions people ask
The interest rate is the cost of borrowing the money. The APR expresses the rate plus the fees as a single annual percentage, so it is the figure that lets you compare two offers with different fee structures. Where a loan has no fees the two are the same.
Avalanche — highest rate first — is always cheaper and always at least as fast. Snowball clears the smallest balances sooner, which some people need to keep going. The Debt Payoff calculator prices both on your own debts, so the cost of choosing snowball is a number rather than a guess.
On a normally amortizing loan, yes — interest is charged on the outstanding balance, so reducing it early removes every future interest charge that balance would have accrued. Check for a prepayment penalty first; they are uncommon but not extinct.