Enter the loan amount, annual interest rate, and term to see your monthly payment, total interest, and total amount you'll repay.
$15,000 at 9.5% over 48 months, the values this page opens with:
The first payment splits $118.75 to interest and $258.10 to principal. Because interest is charged on the outstanding balance, that ratio improves every month: the loan barely moves early and then falls away quickly at the end. Any overpayment made in the first year is worth substantially more than the same amount paid in the last.
Taking the same $15,000 over 60 months instead of 48 drops the payment to $315.03 — $61.82 a month easier. It raises total interest to $3,901.68, so the extra year costs $813.02.
That is the trade in plain terms, and it is a reasonable one to make if the shorter payment would leave you borrowing elsewhere to cover a bad month. It becomes a bad one when the longer term is chosen for a payment you could have afforded anyway. Lenders lead with the monthly figure precisely because it makes a longer, costlier loan feel cheaper.
Against credit card debt, usually and substantially. The same $15,000 over 48 months at a typical card rate of 22% would cost $472.59 a month — nearly $96 more than at 9.5%, and thousands more over the term. Consolidating card balances into a fixed-rate instalment loan is one of the few refinancing moves that reliably pays, because it converts open-ended revolving debt with a moving rate into a fixed sum with a fixed end date.
Two conditions decide whether it works. The rate you are offered has to be genuinely lower than what you are paying now — advertised rates are for the best-qualified applicants, and the rate you get depends on your credit profile. And the cleared cards have to stay cleared; consolidating and then re-running the balances leaves you with both debts. See how credit card interest is actually calculated for why revolving balances cost more than the headline rate suggests, and the debt payoff calculator to compare against simply attacking the cards directly.
This calculator models a clean loan: fixed rate, fixed term, no fees. Real personal loans frequently carry an origination fee of 1% to 8%, often deducted from the amount you receive — borrow $15,000 with a 5% fee and $14,250 arrives while you repay the full $15,000. That converts a quoted 9.5% into a materially higher effective rate.
Some also carry prepayment penalties, which remove the option value of clearing the loan early. The comparable figure across lenders is the APR, which folds fees in; the interest rate alone does not. If one lender quotes a rate and another an APR, you are not comparing the same thing.
Personal loans are typically unsecured and flexible — common uses include debt consolidation, medical bills, home repairs, moving costs, or a large one-time purchase. Unlike an auto loan or mortgage, the lender usually doesn't restrict what the funds are used for, which is exactly what makes them a popular option for consolidating higher-rate debt into one fixed payment.
An unsecured personal loan requires no collateral and is approved based on creditworthiness alone, usually carrying a somewhat higher rate to compensate the lender for that added risk. A secured personal loan is backed by an asset — a savings account, CD, or vehicle title — which can lower the rate, but puts that asset at risk if you default on payments.
Lenders price personal loans heavily on credit risk — higher scores generally unlock lower rates and better terms, while lower scores mean higher rates or may require a co-signer to qualify at all. Rates for personal loans span a genuinely wide range for exactly this reason, so shopping the same loan amount and term across multiple lenders can meaningfully change your monthly payment.
A personal loan gives a fixed rate, fixed payment, and fixed payoff date, which makes budgeting predictable and often results in less total interest than carrying a revolving credit card balance at a variable rate. A credit card offers more flexibility and, if paid off within an introductory 0% promotional window, can be cheaper overall — but only if you're confident you'll clear the balance before interest starts accruing.
Worked example: a $15,000 loan at 9.5% APR over 48 months: monthly rate = 9.5 ÷ 12 ÷ 100 = 0.0079167; payment = 15,000 × 0.0079167 ÷ (1 − (1.0079167)−48) ≈ $376.85 a month, for a total of roughly $18,088.66 repaid — about $3,088.66 in interest over the life of the loan.
Comparing loan types? See the Loan / EMI Calculator for a general-purpose amortization breakdown. Using a personal loan to clear a federal student loan almost never pays, because it trades an income-capped payment for a fixed one — the student loan repayment calculator shows what the capped version costs.