Enter your loan amount, rate, and term. See monthly payments and total interest across different scenarios.
This is the plain fixed-rate loan: a single balance, one rate, one term. Add fees to the amount if they are being financed, because they are borrowed money like any other.
| Term | Monthly | Total interest |
|---|---|---|
| 3 years | $386.64 | $1,919 |
| 5 years | $254.37 | $3,262 |
Two extra years lowers the payment by about $132 a month and adds about $1,343 of interest. Whether that trade is worth it depends entirely on what the $132 buys you: an emergency fund is worth more than the interest, a streaming bundle is not.
Now the fee question. A $300 origination fee deducted from the proceeds means you receive $11,700 but repay $12,000. Financed at 9.9% over three years, that $300 costs more than $300. This is why the APR on the contract is higher than the rate in the ad, and why the APR is the number to compare between two offers.
The payment is fixed principal and interest. It assumes the rate never changes, no fees are added mid-loan, and you make every payment on time and in full. A variable-rate loan, an interest-only start, or a prepayment penalty will all produce a different number from the same inputs.
Total interest is the honest cost of the term. On the example above, borrowing $12,000 for three years costs 16% of the principal in interest, and five years costs 27%. The monthly figure is what you feel; the total is what you agreed to.
Nothing here models late fees, deferment, forbearance, or a hardship modification. It also does not know whether the loan is secured — a secured loan can be cheaper and carries the risk of losing the collateral, which no amortization formula shows.
For several balances at different rates, this page is the wrong tool. Use the debt payoff planner, which can order them by balance or by rate.
The APR, when the lender provides one, because it includes fees and makes two offers comparable. If the payment must match a specific contract exactly, enter the contract's nominal rate instead and note that fees sit outside the math.
You pay interest for more months on a balance that shrinks slowly. The payment falls because the principal is spread thinner, not because the borrowing got cheaper.
Usually, and doing so saves the remaining interest. Check for a prepayment penalty first, since some loans charge one and that can erase the saving.
It can be, if the rate is materially lower and you stop adding new charges to the cards. Consolidating while still spending on them converts unsecured revolving debt into a fixed payment plus the same cards, which is worse than either alone.
No. Origination fees, insurance products, and late charges are all outside the calculation. Add a financed fee to the loan amount and expect the real payment to be higher than the one shown.
Then the balance never falls and this formula does not describe your loan. An interest-only period ends with a higher payment, and the size of that jump is the risk to plan for.
The payment is the standard amortization formula. The consumer rules are the CFPB's.
Last updated: November 2, 2026. Reviewed by David Liu. Fixed-rate, fully amortizing loans only.