What the calculator shows
- Monthly payment over the term you choose
- Effective APR including the origination fee
- Cash actually disbursed after the fee
- Total interest and total cost (interest + fee)
Reading a personal-loan offer
Lenders advertise the note rate, but two offers with the same rate aren’t equal if one has a 1% fee and the other 6%. Convert both to effective APR:
- $20,000, 12% note rate, 5-year term, no fee → 12.0% effective APR
- $20,000, 12% note rate, 5-year term, 6% fee ($1,200) → roughly 14.7% effective APR
Same payment schedule, meaningfully different cost.
Good and bad uses
Reasonable: consolidating higher-rate credit-card debt, a necessary expense with no cheaper financing, replacing a payday or title loan.
Think twice: vacations, weddings, or anything discretionary; borrowing to invest; rolling one personal loan into another repeatedly.
Before you sign
- Check for prepayment penalties — most reputable lenders have none.
- Confirm whether the rate is fixed (it usually is) or variable.
- Make sure the payment fits your debt-to-income ratio with room to spare.
- Get quotes from 3+ lenders; a soft pre-qualification won’t hurt your credit.