How your loan repayment is worked out
Most UK loans use a level repayment, where you pay the same amount every period until the balance reaches zero. Each repayment covers the interest charged on the balance for that period, and whatever is left over reduces the amount you owe. Because the balance shrinks over time, the interest portion of each repayment falls and the principal portion rises. The formula that ties it together is repayment = P × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)−n), where P is the amount borrowed, r is the interest rate for a single period, and n is the total number of repayments. This calculator applies it for monthly and true weekly repayments.
Works for any loan
The same maths drives a personal loan, a car loan and a debt consolidation loan, so this calculator handles all of them. Enter the amount you are borrowing, the annual rate as an APR or a p.a. figure, and the term in years or months. If you repay weekly rather than monthly, switch the frequency and the tool works the repayment out on a true weekly period, with 52 repayments a year, not the monthly figure divided by four.
APR, interest and the total you repay
The headline rate matters, but the number that tells you the real cost is the total repayable. A longer term lowers each repayment yet raises the total interest, because the balance sits there for longer. A UK lender only has to give its advertised representative APR to just over half of accepted applicants, so the rate you are offered can differ. Compare the total repayable across a couple of options before you commit.
A worked example
Take a £10,000 loan at 9.9% APR over five years, repaid monthly. The period rate is 9.9% ÷ 12, over 60 repayments, which gives a repayment of about £212.01 a month. Across the full term that adds up to roughly £12,720 repaid, of which around £2,720 is interest. Shorten the term to three years and the monthly repayment rises to about £322, but the total interest drops to around £1,590, which shows why the term matters as much as the amount you borrow.
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Simon is the founder of Orbit Money, a tool that helps people track subscriptions and recurring spend. He builds Orbit's free money calculators and writes about personal finance for UK and Australian readers.
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