Loan Calculator
Since you may have happened upon this loan calculator to calculate a monthly payment, I'll cut to the chase. You'll only need to enter three numbers, and you can leave the other dozen or so options untouched.
Here's all you need to do.
- Click clear and enter values for:
- Loan Amount
- Number of Payments
- Annual Interest Rate
- Leave Loan Payment Amount set to 0.
- Click either "Calc" or "Payment Schedule."
There you have it. Now you have what you need.
Info...
Click, copy, paste this URL to save the inputs for yourself or to share with others.
This custom URL updates when you click the "Calc", "Clear" or "Schedule" buttons. Paste it into a browser's address bar to reload.
About Dates & Calculations
VERY IMPORTANT - You must enter a 0 if you want a value calculated. Some users have been frustrated by this. They want to know why the calculator does not just recalculate a payment if they have changed the loan amount, interest rate or term.
This is because we want the calculator to be able to create an amortization schedule using whatever parameters you want to use. This behavior is a feature! After all, there is no such thing as a "correct" loan payment. The payment amount is correct as long as both the lender and debtor agree to it!
About the loan origination date (start date) and first payment due date - This calculator now allows irregular length first periods. That is, the calculator calculates the exact amount of interest due even when the initial period is shorter or longer than the other scheduled periods. This will result in payment amounts as well as interest charges that do not match other calculators. If you want to match other calculators then set the "Loan Date" and "1st Payment Date" so that the time between them equals one full period as set in "Payment Frequency". Example: If the "Loan Date" is May 15th and the "Payment Frequency" is "Monthly," then the "1st Payment Date" should be set to June 15th, that is IF you want a conventional interest calculation. See amortization with dates — first period interest & year-end totals for details about the long and short period interest options.
Of course, you can always leave the dates set as they are when the calculator loads.
Much More Than a Payment Calculator
Since the calculator will solve for multiple unknowns, it can easily be used to answer the following questions:
- How much can I borrow?
- What would my payment be?
- What is the lending rate?
- How long will it take to pay off my loan?
- What date is my loan paid off?
- What is the impact of making extra payments?
See the payment schedule for total interest saved.
Loan Calculator with Extra Payments or Lump Sum Payment
If, for example, your loan payment is $550 a month, but you could afford to pay more, say $625 a month, you could go ahead and pay the lender $625.
Why would you want to do that`?
If you made an additional payment each month, you would be prepaying principal - frequently called making extra payments (though there is nothing "extra" about it because the debtor owes the money). When a borrower prepays loan principal, they save interest charges. Loan interest gets calculated each period on the unpaid balance. The extra payment lowers the balance as of the next interest calculation and for all future interest calculations. The result is, you'll potentially save a lot in interest charges because the interest due gets calculated on a lower balance.
How much interest can I save?
That's what this calculator will tell you.
On the options tab, enter an "Extra Payment Amount."
With this calculator, the extra payments can start on any date and be for any frequency. Perhaps you pay the loan monthly, and you receive regular income that is paid to you quarterly (a stock dividend for example) that you want to use for prepaying principal. The calculator gives you the ability to enter extra payments on a schedule that suits you.
Perhaps you anticipate getting a year-end bonus. The loan calculator will calculate the impact of making a single lump sum extra payment. Just pick a payment date and enter 1 for "number of Extra Pmts."
You'll save even more in interest charges if you make multiple extra payments. You can enter a specific number or if you enter "Unknown" for the "number of extra pmts", the calculator will create a payment schedule, adding the extra payment amount as indicated until the loan is paid-in-full.
Another detail about additional payments. Notice if you make the extra payments on a date other than the scheduled periodic payment date, the layout of the amortization schedule changes. You'll see a few new columns. When making an extra payment, the borrower will want the entire amount used to reduce the principal balance. That is what this calculator will do. The additional columns make this clear by tracking the accrued interest in the interest balance column, and the calculator reduces the principal balance by the extra payment amount. The lender collects the accured interest with the next scheduled payment.
If you are a borrower, you can use this calculator to confirm that the lender is allocating the payments in this manner. I believe this is the only free loan calculator with extra payment support on the web that either allow an extra payment on a different date than the regular loan payment schedule or that correctly applies the prepayment 100% to the principal balance.
$100 prepaid principal reduces principal balance by same amount.
Wrapping Up
On a more general note, we have been discussing details about loans, some structured with unusual features, over several decades. At this point, we believe our software calculators can create a schedule for any structured settlement loan that exists. If you have a loan with special requirements, please ask.
Loan Calculator Help...
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".
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.
If the terms of the loan call for a 0% interest rate, then the "Amortization Method" must be set to "No Interest," otherwise entering a zero for "Annual Interest Rate?" will cause the calculator to calculate an interest rate. Selecting "No Interest," also lets the user set the payment amount to "0" to tell the calculator to calculate it.
When the first period, the period of time between the "loan date" and the "first payment date" is longer than one full period, there will be interest due for the "extra days". This is known as "odd day interest." Example: if the "loan date" is March 24 and the "first payment date" is May 1, then there are 8 odd days of interest - March 24th to April 1st. How the odd day interest is calculated and collected is controlled with the "Long Period Options." By default, the odd days interest is shown being paid on the loan date.
Conversely, if the time between the "loan date" and "first payment date" is less than the payment period set, then the first period is said to be a "short initial period" and the first payment will be reduced due to less interest being owed. How the payment amount and interest is calculated for a short period is determined by the "Short Period Options."
Join the conversation. Tell me what you think.
Ibrah says:
How does this loan calculator work ?
If i took a loan of $ 200,000 paid on monthly basis at a rate of 10% !
i.e Interest per month 0.10*200,000 = 20,000/mo.
but the calculator shows monthly interest contribution is $ 15,000.
How does this calculator work ?
Karl says:
The calculator requires you to enter an annual interest rate. Is the interest rate for this loan really 10% per month (very roughly about 120% per year)?
Also, the dates you enter and compounding frequency are important.
Ibrah says:
Yes, 120% per year.
Then why when calculating manually, the monthly interest is different ?
That’s 0.10*200,000 = 20,000per month ( manually ).
By calculator, it amounts to 15,000 monthly.
Karl says:
When the loan balance equals 200,000 and the loan date is May 1 and the first payment date is June 1, with a 120% annual interest rate, the first interest payment using this calculator is 20,000.
Grant Kincaid says:
Thank you! I have been looking for a complex Bi-weekly calculator that would tell me how much to pay to pay off a loan by giving a set amount of time (or bi-weekly payments). Many other calculators what to know my payment, loan dates, extra payment, blah blah blah.
Now I know how much to pay Bi-weekly to have my car loan paid off by January 2020!! This is perfect. Already bookmarked!
Karl says:
Great Grant! Glad you found it useful. Good luck in getting that car loan paid off.
Bobby says:
I’m trying to find the difference between a typical mortgage loan paid out monthly versus paid out weekly. I can’t enter number of payments as 1560 (52×30). Am I missing a step or something?
Karl says:
Wow, I wrote the first version of this calculator for the Apple IIe back in 1983 and I never had anyone ask for the ability to enter so many payments. As they say, there’s always something new. 🙂 This particular calculator is limited to 999 payments.
However, all is not loss. Please try this calculator. It should accommodate your needs. What you’ll do is make the first row a loan row. Then the 2nd row can be 999 weekly payments. Then follow that with a 3rd row for the balance of weekly payments with the date starting month after the 2nd row’s end date.
Gordon says:
Will this calculator allow for a fixed annual principal payment, plus the accrued interest for the year? It makes the total payment different each year, but the annual principal reduction payment is constant until the note is repaid.
Karl says:
Are the payments annual? Or are you saying, the interest is paid monthly and there’s one month that includes principal and interest? I’m not sure I understand your requirement. However, please try under "Amortization Method" the "Fixed Principal" option. You can then select annual payments and each year will be the same principal amount (Or if you meant monthly payments and the principal will add up to the same amount each year, then this option will work for that too.)
If that’s not what you want, please provide more details.
Gordon says:
Karl,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
The payments are annual and include a fixed principal payment plus the interest that has accrued during that year. Each subsequent year will have the same amount of principal payment, but the amount of interest accruing will be less each year as the principal declines.
Karl says:
You’re welcome.
Then this calculator should do exactly what you need. Set the amortization method to fixed principal and the payment frequency to annual.
Did you try that by any chance?
Disgruntled auditor working on a Sunday says:
Your website used to be phenomenal. I could just enter data and get the schedule I needed immediately. Now there’s so much fluff and crap all over the place that it’s almost more efficient to calculate it myself.
Please go back to the way it was. Nobody cares about the history of how the calculator came to be. We came here to get data.
Also, if you can just show the schedule instead of making us jump through hoops to get it, that’d be great.
Karl says:
Nothing has changed with respect to what a user must do to create a payment schedule in over 2 decades. Enter 3 known values, enter a 0 for an unknown value (i.e. loan amount, term, rate or payment amount) and then click on payment schedule button.
Done.
Ignore everything else or not – it’s up to you.
Sally Harding says:
How do I get and use this calculator?
Karl says:
What do you mean by "how do I get?" It’s right on this page for all to use.
There is a lot written here about how to use it. There’s no point in repeating it. If something is not clear, I’m happy to answer specific questions.
Trey Jones says:
People are asking how to use this and get it because it’s not here anymore. This page is blank except for comments.
Karl says:
Hello, financial-calculators.com is back up and running. I’m sorry for the problems you experienced. An automatically applied update went wrong and it eventually brought down the entier site on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I could not figure out the problem and get it fixed until late Tuesday (eastern time USA). Thank you for reporting the problem.
Karl says:
At the time you wrote, I had not been aware that the website had been automatically updated with a security fix. This "fix" broke some calculators when used from some locations as early as Sunday and eventually brought the entire website down on Tuesday morning eastern time (USA). I have fixed the problem, so if you still need a calculator for loan analysis, you should see it now on the page.
Mary Eileen Gunter says:
Hi, there. I love and am grateful for the loan calculator–but your last commentor was right: “How do I get it”? Right now none of the calculators are showing on my screen–just the text, plus placeholders for the calculators. (I am using Windows 7) I think something went awry???? Mary
Karl says:
Hello, financial-calculators.com is back up and running. I’m sorry for the problems you experienced. An automatically applied update went wrong and it eventually brought down the entier site on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I could not figure out the problem and get it fixed until late Tuesday (eastern time USA). Thank you for reporting the problem.
Nguyen Quoc Ky says:
Hi Karl,
Your works are awesome. I really love your plugin by its simple.
Currently I am using FC’s Loan Calculator plugin on my wordpress website. I wonder how I can choose the settings for “Amortization Method?” from default to Fixed Principlal?
Thanks,
Karl says:
The FC Loan Calculator Plugin does not support fixed principal loans. However, the plugin does come with the source code. The website’s programmer could make the modification to add fixed principal calculation.
D Lowy says:
Your site is very educational. Thank you!
I am trying to true up my car loan. There is difference between the loan paperwork and your calculator. Your calculator is off by $0.50 per payment (lower).
Say the loan closed May 27 and the 1st payment is July 11. I do not pay anything the day the loan closes. So there is interest accumulating from 5/27 till July 11 based on the loan value. I do not see how your calculator is taking that into account.
I did try added the dates on the 2nd tab and the monthly payment amount is always the same.
Karl says:
You’re welcome!
Assuming monthly payments, since the loan originates on May 27 and the first payment is July 11, we then have a long initial period. On the options tab, there is an option identified as "Long Period Options."e; How is that set? That controls interest.
For me to look at the details of your calculation, it would be best if you copy/past the custom URL below the calculator after a calculation to a comment. This way, I can use it to load the calculator with all your settings and inputs. (You can also save it in a text file to repeat your calculation.)
Julie says:
This is just what I was looking for!! You have made my day. We are about to undertake vendor finance and was wanting something I could fiddle around with…… including extra payments! This is PERFECT!! Thank you so much! All the banking programs available to the public DON’T give you bells and whistles!
Karl says:
Hi Julie, Glad to have made your day! Since you are taking on vendor financing, if you ever need to track the actual payments as they are made, you can use this loan payoff calculator.