Personal Loan Calculator
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Loan Amount: $30,000
Establishment Fee: --
Total Interest Paid: --
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How to use the personal loan repayment calculator
To use the personal loan calculator, you’ll need to enter some details about your loan.
Borrowing amount
This is the amount of money you are looking to borrow with your personal loan. It becomes your loan balance to be paid off. Interest is calculated as a percentage of your loan balance each year.
The average personal loan amount in 2023 is $22,643, according to Money.com.au data.
Interest rate
The interest rate is set by the lender and is expressed as an annual percentage rate (APR). The interest rate on your personal loan is used to calculate both the total amount of interest you will pay over the loan period and your regular repayment amount.
Something to watch out for is calculating your personal loan based on a lender's lowest advertised rate. Your actual rate (and what you end up paying regularly) will likely be different. Personal loan interest rates are heavily influenced by your credit score and the average rate for borrowers in 2023 is 13.87%, according to Money.com.au analysis of thousands of loan requests.
Loan term
This is the length of your personal loan agreement. Your loan term is important as it will allow you to accurately calculate your monthly, fortnightly, or weekly payments, plus the overall interest cost. The shorter your loan term, the higher your scheduled repayments will be. But you’ll pay less interest overall with a shorter term. Most people choose a five-year term, our data shows.
Establishment fees
A lot of lenders charge upfront fees on their personal loans. Establishment fees are included in the calculation for your repayments to provide a more accurate total loan amount.
Once you have filled in your personal loan details:
- Click ‘See My Repayments’ to view an estimated repayment amount.
- Select monthly, fortnightly, or weekly repayments to calculate your repayments at different frequencies.
If you are calculating a personal loan with a variable interest rate, bear in mind you will only be able to calculate the current repayment amount.
Your regular repayment and total amount to repay will change if your lender puts your interest rate up or down.
How do lenders calculate personal loan interest?
Our calculator mirrors the way lenders calculate and charge interest on a personal loan.
Generally interest is calculated daily based on the current balance of the personal loan, and charged monthly.
Let’s look at an example...
Say you borrow $20,000 with a fixed rate personal loan, at a 7% annual interest rate.
To calculate the daily interest amount, the lender multiplies your current loan balance by the interest rate: $20,000 x 0.07 = $1,400
Then they divide that by the 365 days in the year = $3.84
To arrive at the monthly interest charge on the personal loan, the lender simply adds up the daily totals for the current month.
That amount is then added to your loan balance to be paid off along with the loan principal.
This works in the same way as interest on many other loan types, like car loans and home loans.
Example of weekly personal loan repayments
| Personal loan amount | Repayments (8% interest) | Repayments (12.5% interest) | Repayments (16% interest) |
|---|---|---|---|
$5,000 | $23.40 | $25.96 | $28.06 |
$10,000 | $46.79 | $51.92 | $56.12 |
$15,000 | $70.19 | $77.88 | $84.18 |
$20,000 | $93.58 | $103.84 | $112.24 |
$25,000 | $116.98 | $129.80 | $140.30 |
$30,000 | $140.38 | $155.75 | $168.36 |
$40,000 | $187.17 | $207.67 | $224.47 |
$50,000 | $233.96 | $259.59 | $280.59 |
$60,000 | $280.75 | $311.51 | $336.71 |
Personal loan repayment (amortisation) calculation
The personal loan calculator uses what’s called an ‘amortisation’ calculation to estimate your repayment amounts. Amortisation basically means the loan balance gradually reduces over time.
This is because your repayments pay down both the interest charged by the lender and the amount you borrowed (known as the principal).
When you make your first repayment on your personal loan, a greater portion of the repayment will go toward repaying interest.
This is simply because the balance of the loan interest is being charged on is higher at the start.
As you continue to make your repayments, the portion of interest paid on each amount will decrease. The portion being used to pay down the loan principal will increase.
When you calculate your personal loan repayments using this formula, it also allows you to estimate your savings if you make extra repayments to repay the loan early.
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GET STARTEDGET STARTEDPersonal loan repayment calculator FAQs
How do I calculate my borrowing capacity?
Lenders have their own way of calculating borrowing capacity when assessing personal loan applications. Usually they’ll look at factors like your income, other expenses and your credit history.
But a quick way to estimate how much you can afford to borrow overall is simply to work out how much you can afford in regular repayments (weekly, fortnightly or monthly) and for how long.
As a general example, let’s say a borrower can afford to repay $500 each month for 5 years.
With a hypothetical interest rate of 10%, the borrowing capacity would be around $23,500.
With interest charges added, that would mean a total to repay of around $30,000.
How can I pay off my personal loan sooner?
Paying off your personal loan early could save you money in interest. There are a couple of ways to pay off your loan sooner.
Negotiate a shorter loan term with your lender (you will have higher regular repayments if you do this). Make extra repayments on the personal loan whenever you have cash to spare.
Bear in mind some lenders charge fees if you make extra repayments or repay the loan before the contracted term.
How can I reduce my regular personal loan repayments?
If you want to reduce your regular loan repayments, you could either:
- Extend the loan term so it’s spread over a longer time period. While this will lower your regular repayments, you’ll pay more in interest overall.
- Refinance the personal loan to a lower interest rate, either with your current lender or a new one (if you have debts, like a credit card, you could combine them with a debt consolidation personal loan)
Some borrowers who sign up for a bad credit personal loan choose to refinance their loan to a better interest rate later once their credit score has had time to improve.
How can I save on interest on my personal loan?
Here are some techniques that may save you money in interest on your personal loan:
- Look for the lowest interest rate you’re eligible for
- Avoid high upfront fees as these are often added to your loan balance and incur interest
- Choose the shortest loan term you can (based on how much you can afford to pay in regular repayments)
- Make extra repayments on the loan if you can afford to
- If you already have a loan, consider refinancing it to a lower interest rate
- Don’t borrow any more than you need
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