Loan Comparison Calculator

How the Loan Comparison Calculator works

When you apply for a loan, lenders often come back with more than one offer for the same amount — maybe a shorter term at a higher monthly payment, or a lower rate that comes with an origination fee. They can be hard to compare at a glance. This calculator puts two offers side by side and shows what each one really costs.

Which amount are you comparing?

An origination fee is not a bill you pay. The lender keeps it out of the money they send you, so a $10,000 loan with a 3% fee pays out $9,700 while you still repay the whole $10,000. Set that beside a $10,000 loan with no fee and the two offers are handing you different amounts of money, which can name the wrong winner: 12% with no fee genuinely costs less than 10% with a 3% fee, and the raw totals say the opposite.

That is what Make this the amount you receive settles, and it is ticked by default. The figure you enter is then what lands in your account, and each option borrows whatever it takes to get you there — the no-fee option borrows $10,000, the 3% option borrows $10,309.28. Both pay out the same, so any difference in cost comes from the term, the interest rate and the fee.

Untick it to compare two offers exactly as they were quoted. Either way the table shows the loan amount and the amount received side by side, and when an option only looks cheaper because it pays out less, the verdict says so rather than picking a winner.

Look at interest and fees

The headline number is each option's total interest, but the fairest measure of cost is total interest + fees. A loan with a lower interest rate can still cost more once a chunky origination fee is added, so we total both and call out whichever option is cheaper overall. That total is only a like-for-like measure when both options pay out the same amount, which is what the tick box above is for.

Cheaper overall vs. lower monthly

Watch the trade-off: the option that costs less in total often has a highermonthly payment, usually because it's paid off over a shorter term. That can be the smarter long-run choice, but only if the bigger monthly payment fits your budget. The comparison shows both the monthly payment and the lifetime cost so you can weigh them.

Assumptions & limitations

Like our other calculators, this assumes fixed-rate loans repaid in equal monthly payments with interest compounded monthly — the norm for most personal loans, auto loans and mortgages in the United States. It isn't suitable for variable-rate credit, balloon payments, or other fees beyond origination.