The loan calculator is one of our most popular financial calculators. It can solve for one of four unknown values, or you can enter values for loan amount, term, interest rate and payment and it will create a schedule using your values. More below...»
About dates - if you want to create a schedule that accurately reflects a loan's origination date (the day the money is borrowed) and the first payment date followed by regularly scheduled payments, then use our amortization schedule.
Don't over pay, don't under collect. If you need to track payments on the exact date they are paid (or missed) for whatever amount, then use our time value of money calculator.
Since the calculator will solve for multiple unknowns, it can easily be used to answer the following questions:
This calculator will solve for any one of four possible unknowns: "Amount of Loan", "Total Scheduled Periods" (term), "Annual Interest Rate" or the "Periodic Payment".
Enter a '0' (zero) for one unknown value.
The term (duration) of the loan is a function of the "Total Scheduled Periods" and the "Payment Frequency". If the loan is calling for monthly payments and the term is four years, then enter 48 for the "Total Scheduled Periods". If the payments are made quarterly and the term is ten years, then enter 40 for the "Total Scheduled Periods".
Normally you would set the "Payment Method" to "Arrears" for a loan. This means that the monies are lent on one day and the first payment isn't due until one period after the funds are received.
If the first payment is due on the day the funds are available, then set "Payment Method" to "Advance". This is typical for leases.
The "Amortization Method" should be set to "Normal" (level payments) unless you have a specific reason to set it to another method. &Fixed Principal" causes the amount allocated to principal to be the same each period which result in decreasing payments.
The Total Interest and Total Principal & Interest at the bottom of the calculator itself are approximations. The numbers do not include final payment rounding. Please see the schedule for the exact principal and interest amounts as well as any rounding amount required. The difference is greatest when solving for term, otherwise, the difference is usually pennies and not more than a dollar or two.
Loan Carrying Cost: Interest Reduction Techniques
On a more general note, we have been discussing details about loans, some structured with unusual details, over several decades. At this point, we believe our software calculators can create a schedule for any custom loan that exists. If you have a loan with unusual terms, please ask.
Hopefully you'll find this loan calculator as well as all the financial calculators on this site to be useful tools. Why not take another sip of your favorite beverage and explore for a few minutes? Start by checking out The Reading Room. Here you'll find a half dozen articles, written by professionals, about money.
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Can you guys put back the old calculator because this one doesn’t work if the payment frequency is daily and compounding is monthly.
It does now.
Isn’t working what I try to calculate number of payments with biweekly payments/monthly compounding. Get an error message saying “Cannot calculate term when initial period is irregular length. Dates must match frequency.”
That’s not so much an error message as a message that tells the user about a limitation the calculator (at this time) has — it can’t calculate the term when the compounding and payment frequencies don’t match. If you set compounding to be the same as payment, you can calculate term. Term calculations are imprecise anyway (because it’s not possible to have 3/4 of a payment period, for example) which is what you would most likely need when you pick a payment amount.
Further, even after the calculators are updated to allow calculating term with mixed payment and compounding frequencies, the difference you’ll get with monthly/biweekly and monthly/monthly might be a period less. Do the calculation with monthly/monthly then change to monthly/biweekly using the term calculated to run the schedule. Depending on the rounding, you can adjust the term by a period, if you desire.
Since you are using biweekly payments, would this biweekly loan calculator be a better choice for you?
Sorry if TMI.
On the schedule the print is so small when printed that it is difficult to read even after enlarging it.
Printing does vary from browser to browser and even between different versions of the same browser. (This is due to inconsistent standards.) Please tell me what browser and version you are using and I’ll try to take a look. Also, is the problem when you are printing the schedule, or just using the print button on the calculator?
FYI: I test with current version of Chrome and IE 11. Chrome gives the best results but IE 11 should also be ok.
Using the same input information, I get two different final payments with this calculator and the amortization calculator. With this calculator the final payment is $92.00, but using the mortgage calculator with the exact same information, the last payment is $99.09. Why is this?
Input info: term 36 months
Principal: $4000.00
Interest: 2.0%
Payment: $115.00/mo
Compounding: Monthly
Payment: Monthly
I would like to suggest that for this Loan calculator a start date be optional. As is, it assumes the start date at the first day of the month following the input month.
I think I answered my own question: one uses advance payment, the other uses “arrears” payment, meaning interest is figured for the month, whereas the advance payment would be less 30 days interest. Or something like that I think. So then, is a mortgage considered Advance or Arrears? It would seem to be Advance, yet it was the larger final payment. So, I’m still confused.
Before we get into details, because I’m not clear exactly on just what calculators we are talking about, the final payment may seem to vary between two calculators due to various options, particularly the final payment rounding option (which users do not, in all cases, have access to setting only because I want to try to keep some things as simple as possible).
In addition to this calculator you mentioned both Amortization Calculator (Schedule) and Mortgage Calculator. These are two different calculators on this site. I think you are only referring to the Mortgage Calculator, correct?
If you use the Amortization Schedule, then you have full control over both the loan date and the first payment date – which lets you set an irregular first period if necessary.
Generally, mortgage or loans are payment in arrears. All payment in advance means is that the first payment happens on the same date as the day the monies are lent. If the first payment is paid on any day after the day the monies are lent, then we have payment in arrears. (With payment in advance there is no interest collected with the first payment only.)
When I enter your values into both this loan calculator and the mortgage calculator and set the payment amount to $115.00 month, I get the same final payment of $99.09, leaving a 0 balance.
Feel free to ask anything else if this is not clear.
I don’t see an option as to being able to have the calculation based on 360/364/365 days. It would be nice to be able to have that option if it isn’t already there and I am not finding it.
Some calculators have this option and others don’t. In some cases, there are fewer choices just to keep things simpler, which itself is a feature.
But all is not loss. Please try the Amortization Schedule Calculator. It does all that this loan calculator does, plus it gives the user the ability to set loan and first payment dates and the days per year. Click on the “Settings” button for the 360/364/365 options.
Hi
Where can I get the source codes for this Calc
The source code isn’t available.
However, are you looking to put this calculator on a website? If that’s the case, I’ll have versions for other websites available sometime this month. You’ll be able to control style/colors and you’ll be able to label them with your own brand.
Thanks. please notify when ready
I want to get loan schedule for a loan already running its . it will be better if i get a loan calculator which can set a previous starting date . My Loan is started on 30 June 2015 . i need schedule for that laon
No problem. Please use this amortization schedule. With this calculator, you can set both the loan date as well as the first payment date.
The calculator gave erroneous results:
$59,500 loan
$1,000 mo. payment
Interest rate of 2.65% compared with 2.85%
Results on your calculator were the same for both rates and not correct for either.
I believe I understand your point, though it would have been useful if you had provided a few more details. I assume you are solving for the term and then looking at the bottom of the calculator for the total interest. The total interest shown is an approximation. The reason is, the formula is the total number of payments times the payment amount less the loan amount. This formula does not allow for the rounding necessary (typically at the last payment period) for most loans.
If / when you need precision, please look at the schedule. The value in the header and at the end of the schedule is accurate.
I’ll update the calculator’s help to reflect this detail.
Hope this helps.
I’ll add two more things. The discrepancy is going to be greatest when solving for term. It’s just the nature of the math since when solving for term, the payment amount used will frequently not be the “ideal” amount – that is, the amount that requires the least amount of rounding.
Based on your comment and your detail review of the results, you perhaps would be more interested in using the Amortization Schedule. It also gives the user control over the loan date and first payment date.
I love it. Worked perfectly for my particiular situation.
Thank you for this great tool. I am trying to calculate a loan’s monthly payment …it has 0% interest but the system is telling me there are too many unknowns. Any suggestion? Thanks.
Thank you. And of course I have a suggestion! 🙂
Change the “Amortization Method” to “No Interest”. This is what tell the calculator to ignore the 0 entered for unknown interest rate.
NOTE: After you calculate, you may see a very small interest amount for “Total Interest”. This is due to the calculator not allowing for the final rounding adjustment at that point since the schedule was generated. For complete picture, including rounding adjustment, please see the “Payment Schedule”.