Loan & Debt Calculators
Loan payments and schedules, APR, credit cards, debt payoff strategies and debt-to-income ratios.
Calculators
- Loan Payment Calculator
Fixed-rate payment with a full amortization schedule you can download.
- Auto Loan Calculator
Car payment with down payment, trade-in, financed fees and your sales-tax treatment.
- Credit Card Payoff Calculator
Months to pay off a card balance and total interest, including payments that never finish it.
- Debt Snowball vs. Avalanche Calculator
Compare paying smallest balance first against highest rate first across several debts.
- Debt-to-Income Ratio Calculator
Front-end and back-end debt-to-income ratios from monthly income and payments.
- APR Calculator
Estimate the APR of a fixed-rate loan once fees are included.
Which loan or debt calculator to use
Borrowing questions come in two kinds: what a loan will cost before you sign, and how to clear debt you already carry.
- What will this loan cost each month and in total?
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Payment per period, total interest and a full amortization schedule for any amount, rate, term and payment frequency.
- What will the car really cost?
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Adds sales tax, fees and trade-in equity, positive or negative, before working out the payment, so the amount financed matches the deal on paper.
- Which offer is cheaper once fees count?
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Turns a note rate plus prepaid finance charges into an APR, the rate used to compare loan offers.
- How long will this card balance take to clear?
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Months and interest at a fixed payment or under a minimum-payment formula, or the payment that clears the card by a target month.
- Which debt should I pay first?
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Debt Snowball vs. Avalanche Calculator
Runs smallest-balance-first and highest-rate-first on the same monthly budget, with the payoff order and total interest for each.
- How much of my income goes to debt?
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Debt-to-Income Ratio Calculator
Front-end and back-end ratios from gross monthly income, housing costs and other required payments.
Have these to hand
- The amount, the note rate (not just the APR) and the term in months.
- Every fee paid at closing or added to the balance.
- For cards, the balance, purchase APR and minimum-payment rule printed on your statement.
Mistakes that change the answer
- Stretching the term to lower the payment: each payment shrinks, but total interest grows.
- Paying little more than the month’s interest, which leaves the balance almost where it started.
- Dividing debt by take-home pay. Debt-to-income ratios use gross income, so the result comes out too high.
Related guides
- How loan amortization works, with a worked schedule
The payment formula, how each payment splits between interest and principal, why the last payment is off by a few cents, when principal overtakes interest on a long loan, and what extra payments and negative amortization do to the schedule.
- How to compare loan offers: APR, fees and total cost
Match the offers on cash received and term, then compare APR and total cost. A worked $15,000 example shows how fees, longer terms and early payoff can change which offer is cheaper.
- Debt snowball vs. avalanche: which pays off debt faster?
The snowball, the avalanche and minimum payments compared on the same four debts: what each costs, where the interest difference comes from, why rolling payments over matters, and when a minimum payment never clears a balance.
- APR vs. APY vs. interest rate: which number to compare
Which rate to compare when you borrow and when you save, what each one includes, and how to convert between them, with worked numbers you can rerun.
- What’s included in a mortgage payment: PITI, PMI and escrow
The parts of a monthly housing payment, worked through for a $360,000 home with 5% down: what each part costs, which parts change, and the payment on which PMI drops off.
- Extra mortgage payments: what they save and what they cost
What extra principal payments save in interest and time, what they cost in cash you can’t easily get back, and how prepaying compares with investing, recasting and paying other debts first.