Loans & Debt
Personal Loan Calculator
See the payment, the cash you actually receive after the origination fee, and the true rate once that fee is counted.
What this means
You’d repay $11,957 over 36 months for $9,500 in hand. Borrowing that money costs $2,457: $1,957 in interest and $500 in fees.
The fee is why the true rate is 15.61%, not 12%. You pay interest on the full $10,000 but only get to use $9,500. If you need the full $10,000 in hand, you’d have to borrow more to cover the fee. When comparing offers, compare the true rate, not the advertised one.
Using this to pay off credit cards? It only helps if the cards stay paid off. Otherwise you end up with the loan payment and new card balances at the same time.
Build on it
These are estimates to help you think, not personalized legal, tax, or investment advice, and not a promise of any result.
This calculator works out the monthly payment and total interest on a personal loan, and then shows what the origination fee does. Most personal-loan fees come out of the money before you get it, so you repay the full amount while receiving less. The calculator shows the cash that actually lands in your account and the true rate once the fee is counted.
Why it matters: two loans with the same interest rate can cost very different amounts. A loan with a 5% fee and a lower rate can cost more than one with no fee and a higher rate. Comparing the true rate, fee included, is the only way to compare offers fairly.
How to use it
Enter the loan amount
The amount on the loan agreement, before any fee comes out.
Enter the rate and term
The interest rate the lender quotes and the number of months. If the lender only gives you an APR that already includes the fee, enter that and set the fee to 0.
Add the origination fee
Usually a percentage of the loan, listed on the offer. Compare the true APR across offers, not the advertised rate.
Behind the numbers
Origination fee
A one-time charge for making the loan, usually taken out of the proceeds. Borrow $10,000 with a 5% fee and $9,500 arrives in your account, but you repay $10,000 plus interest.
Interest rate vs. APR
The interest rate is what's charged on the balance. The APR folds in fees too, spreading them over the life of the loan as if they were extra interest. A higher fee on a shorter loan pushes the APR up the most, because the fee is spread over fewer months.
Fixed payments
Most personal loans have a fixed rate and a fixed payment, so they pay off on a known date. That's the main advantage over credit card debt, as long as the cards don't fill back up.
The math behind it
The payment is the fixed monthly amount that pays off the full loan amount, with interest at the quoted rate divided by 12, in the number of months chosen. The cash you receive is the loan amount minus the fee. The true APR is the yearly rate at which those same payments would be exactly worth the cash you received. There's no simple formula for it, so it's solved by trial: guess a rate, check, and narrow in until it fits.
Worked example
$10,000 at 12% for 36 months with a 5% fee. The payment is $332.14, interest totals about $1,957, and the fee is $500, so you receive $9,500 and the loan costs about $2,457 in all. Because you pay interest on $10,000 while using $9,500, the true APR comes to about 15.6%, roughly 3.6 points above the quoted rate.
Fee divided by half the term
To estimate how much a fee adds to the rate, divide the fee percentage by half the loan's length in years, then add a little. A 5% fee on a 3-year loan: 5 divided by 1.5 is about 3.3, and the true answer is about 3.6 points.
Common questions
What is a good APR for a personal loan?
It depends heavily on your credit score and income. Get prequalified quotes from a few lenders, including a credit union, and compare the APR with fees included. Prequalification usually uses a soft credit check that doesn't affect your score; confirm that with each lender before you apply.
Do lenders have to tell me the APR?
Yes. Under the Truth in Lending Act, lenders have to disclose the APR, which includes certain fees, before you sign. That disclosed APR is the one to compare across offers. This calculator's true APR is a close estimate of it, assuming level monthly payments and the fee taken from the proceeds.
Is a personal loan a good way to pay off credit cards?
It can be, if the true APR is well below the cards' rates and the cards stay paid off afterward. If the balances come back, you end up with the loan payment and the card payments at the same time. The Credit Card Payoff and Debt Payoff calculators help with the other side of that decision.
Sources & references
Go deeper
The calculator gives you a number. The Debt Management Brick teaches you what to do with it, in plain English. And if you’re not sure where to start, the free BrickScore Assessment checks your whole foundation in about 5 minutes.
first the number, then the move