Personal Loan Calculator
Enter your loan and see the monthly payment instantly — plus the one number lenders bury: your real APR once the origination fee is counted. No sign-up, and the exact formula is shown so you can verify it.
Quick answer
A $15,000 loan at 11.5% over 36 months with a 5% origination fee costs $494.64 a month. The fee pushes the true cost to an APR of 15.09% — 3.6 points above the advertised rate — for a total of $17,807 repaid. Change the inputs above and this answer updates with your own numbers.
How your balance falls
Remaining balance over the life of the loan.
12 to 72 months — what each term really costs
Same amount and rate. Shorter = higher monthly, far less interest.
| Term | Monthly | Total interest | Total repaid |
|---|
The origination fee is the number they bury
Personal loans are advertised on an interest rate. Many of them also carry an origination fee, typically deducted from the amount you receive, which means you pay interest on money that never reached you. The advertised rate does not reflect this. The APR does.
Here is the same $15,000 loan at 11.5% over 36 months, varying only the fee:
| Origination fee | Advertised rate | True APR | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | 11.5% | 11.50% | — |
| 3% | 11.5% | 13.63% | +2.1 points |
| 5% | 11.5% | 15.09% | +3.6 points |
| 8% | 11.5% | 17.38% | +5.9 points |
An 8% fee turns an 11.5% loan into a 17.4% loan. That is not a technicality — it is the difference between a competitive rate and an expensive one, and it is invisible if you compare offers on the headline number alone.
This is exactly why APR is the only fair basis for comparing loans. A lender quoting 12% with no fee is cheaper than one quoting 10.5% with a 5% fee, even though the second looks better in an advert.
What the term does
Same $15,000 at 11.5%, varying only the length:
| Term | Monthly payment | Total interest |
|---|---|---|
| 24 months | $702.60 | $1,863 |
| 36 months | $494.64 | $2,807 |
| 48 months | $391.34 | $3,784 |
| 60 months | $329.89 | $4,793 |
The pattern is the same as every other instalment loan: the payment more than halves between 24 and 60 months, and the interest more than doubles. Choose the shortest term whose payment you can sustain without needing to borrow again — a payment you cannot maintain is worse than a longer term.
When a personal loan is the right tool
The clearest case is refinancing more expensive debt. Credit card interest commonly runs far above personal loan rates, so consolidating card balances into a fixed-rate instalment loan can cut the cost sharply and, just as usefully, give the debt an end date instead of a minimum payment that renews forever.
Two conditions decide whether it works. First, the loan's APR — fee included — must be genuinely lower than the rate you are escaping. Second, the cards have to stay paid off. Consolidating and then re-running the balances is the most common way this ends badly: the same debt, plus a loan.
The weakest case is borrowing for something optional. A personal loan is unsecured and therefore priced higher than debt backed by a house or a car, which makes it an expensive way to bring forward a purchase that could wait.
Before you sign
- Compare APR, not rate. The table above shows why. Any lender must disclose it.
- Check whether the fee is deducted or added. Deducted means you receive less than you borrow; if you need the full amount, you must borrow more, which raises the cost again.
- Look for prepayment penalties. Most reputable personal loans have none, and the ability to overpay is worth real money.
- Confirm the rate is fixed. A variable rate can move; this calculator, and most personal loans, assume fixed.
- Watch the total, not the payment. It is the one number a longer term cannot flatter.
The personal loan formula
- M — monthly payment
- P — the amount borrowed, before any fee is deducted
- r — monthly rate, the annual rate divided by 12
- n — number of monthly payments
The true APR is a separate calculation: it is the rate that makes the payments equal the cash you actually received, so a fee deducted at the start raises it without changing the payment at all. That is the number in the results panel above, and it is the one to compare between lenders.
See the formula with your own numbers
These update live from the calculator inputs above.
Example: $15,000 over three years
$15,000 borrowed at 11.5% over 36 months with a 5% origination fee.
- Monthly payment: $494.64 — unchanged by the fee, which is why the fee is easy to miss.
- Cash actually received: about $14,250, because $750 of fee is deducted up front.
- True APR: 15.09%, against an advertised 11.5%.
- Total repaid: $17,807.
The payment is identical whether the fee is 0% or 8%. Everything the fee does happens in the amount you receive and the APR — which is precisely why comparing loans on the monthly payment tells you almost nothing.
Frequently asked questions
What is an origination fee and does it change my payment?
It is an upfront charge for setting up the loan, usually a percentage of the amount borrowed and normally deducted from what you receive. It does not change the monthly payment at all — which is why it is so easy to overlook. It changes the true APR: on a $15,000 loan at 11.5%, a 5% fee raises the effective rate to 15.09%.
Why is the APR higher than the interest rate?
Because APR includes fees and the interest rate does not. If a lender deducts an origination fee from the money you receive, you are paying interest on funds that never arrived, so your real cost is higher than the quoted rate. APR is designed to capture exactly that, which makes it the only fair way to compare offers.
Is a personal loan cheaper than a credit card?
Usually, and the fixed end date is often worth as much as the rate. Credit card interest commonly runs well above typical personal loan rates, so consolidating can cut the cost substantially. The two conditions are that the loan's APR including fees is genuinely lower, and that the cards do not get used again.
What term should I choose?
The shortest one whose payment you can sustain comfortably. On $15,000 at 11.5%, 24 months costs $1,863 in interest and 60 months costs $4,793 — but the payment more than doubles. A payment you cannot maintain is worse than a longer term, because falling behind costs more than the extra interest ever would.
Can I pay a personal loan off early?
Most reputable lenders allow it with no penalty, and overpaying an instalment loan saves interest for the same reason it does on a mortgage: every extra dollar of principal removes all the future interest that dollar would have accrued. Confirm there is no prepayment penalty before signing, because a handful of lenders still charge one.
Does applying hurt my credit score?
A formal application normally involves a hard credit check, which can dent a score slightly and briefly. Many lenders offer a pre-qualification using a soft check that does not affect it, letting you see an indicative rate before committing. Comparing several lenders in a short window is generally treated more kindly than spreading applications over months.
Method & sources
- Calculation: Standard fixed-rate amortization (formula shown). True APR solved so the present value of payments equals the cash received.
- Fee guidance reflects typical U.S. lender origination fees (1%–8%), per Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) consumer-loan guidance.
- Reviewed: · Assumptions reviewed quarterly.
Educational estimate, not financial advice. Confirm exact figures with your lender.
Run your own numbers
Enter the amount, rate, term and any origination fee, and see the payment alongside the true APR — the only number that compares loans fairly.
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