Interest & Loans Calculators

All 10 interest & loans calculators on MoneyCalcsHub, free, instant, no signup.

Borrowing cost and savings growth are the same arithmetic from two sides

Every tool here is a variation on one idea: money has a time cost, and compounding turns that cost into a much larger number than intuition suggests. On the savings side, what matters is the rate, the compounding frequency and the duration. On the borrowing side it is the rate, the term and the fees.

Two conventions cause most of the confusion. APR is the nominal yearly rate before compounding inside the year; APY is what you actually earn or pay once that compounding is included. Comparing an APR against an APY is not a like-for-like comparison. Separately, the monthly payment is not the cost of a loan, the total interest and fees are.

Use the compound interest calculator for growth, the loan payment calculator and mortgage calculator for repayments, the APY calculator to convert APR to APY, and the refinance calculator when you want the break-even month rather than just the new payment.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Comparing APR with APY as if they were the same figure.
• Judging a loan by its monthly payment instead of its total interest and fees.
• Refinancing for a lower payment without checking how many months it takes to recover the closing costs.
• Ignoring compounding frequency, which changes the effective result even at the same stated rate.
• Comparing a car lease's money factor against a loan APR without converting it first.

Frequently asked questions