Loan Calculator
Work out repayments on any loan, compare payment frequencies, and see the full breakdown of interest against principal.
Please note
How to use the Loan Calculator
- 1Enter the amount you want to borrow, the annual interest rate and the term.
- 2Choose how often you will make payments.
- 3Read the payment amount, total interest and total repaid.
- 4Open the amortisation table for a period-by-period breakdown.
How it works
The same annuity mathematics applies whatever the payment frequency: the annual rate is divided by the number of payments per year, the term is multiplied by it, and the level payment is calculated from those two figures.
Paying more often genuinely costs less. With fortnightly payments the balance is reduced 26 times a year rather than 12, so less interest accrues between reductions — and because 26 fortnights is slightly more than 12 months of payments, you also pay marginally more per year. Both effects shorten the loan.
Amounts are tracked in whole cents throughout, so every row of the schedule adds up and the balance finishes at exactly zero.
The formula
- P
- amount borrowed
- r
- interest rate per payment period
- n
- total number of payments
This is the annuity formula written in its negative-exponent form; it gives the same result as the EMI expression.