Debt Consolidation Calculator
Enter the debts you have now, each with its balance, APR and monthly payment. Then enter the consolidation loan you are weighing, with its APR, term and origination fee. For both sides the calculator works out the monthly payment, the months to payoff, the total interest and the total paid, and it tells you how much more or less the loan costs in total and each month.
How to use the Debt Consolidation Calculator
- Enter each debt's balance, APR and monthly payment on its own row. Press Add a debt for another row, or Remove to drop one.
- Enter the loan's APR and term, in years or months. The term has to come to whole months, up to 50 years.
- Enter the origination fee as a percentage of the balances or as an amount, and choose whether it is added to the loan or paid up front. Leave it empty if the loan has no fee.
- Press Compare. The two boxes show each side in full, and the lines below them give the difference in total cost and in monthly payment.
- A message under a row says what keeps that debt from being worked out: a balance, APR or payment outside the allowed range, an amount with more than two decimal places, a payment too small to pay the debt off, or a total too large to show to the cent. Fix that row and press Compare again.
How the two sides are worked out
Loan payment M = A × r(1 + r)^n ÷ ((1 + r)^n − 1), with r = APR ÷ 12 and n = months · · · Each debt, every month: new balance = balance + balance × r − payment
A is the amount borrowed, which is the balances added up plus the fee if the fee goes into the loan. A fee in percent is that share of the balances. On both sides each month's interest is rounded to the cent. The loan payment is rounded to the cent too, and its last payment clears whatever is left, so the totals are what you would pay. At 0% the payment is A ÷ n. On the current side each debt is paid its own payment until it reaches zero, and its last payment is the balance left plus that month's interest. The current monthly payment is what all the debts take in the first month. A fee paid up front is added to the loan's total paid.
Worked example
Say you owe $6,000 on a card at 22.99% APR and pay $180 a month, $3,500 on a second card at 18.49% with $105 a month, and $2,500 on a loan at 9.9% with $90 a month. At those payments the first card takes 54 months, the second 48 months and the loan 32 months. You pay $375.00 a month to start, $5,454.86 in interest and $17,454.86 in total. Now take a 4-year consolidation loan at 11.99% with a 5% fee added to it. The fee is $600.00, so you borrow $12,600.00. The first 47 payments are $331.74 and the last is $331.99, for $3,323.77 in interest and $15,923.77 in total. Here the loan costs $1,531.09 less in total and $43.26 less a month, and it is paid off 6 months sooner.
Frequently asked questions
Is debt consolidation worth it?
Enter your debts and the loan offer and look at two lines. One says whether the loan costs more or less in total, fee included. The other compares its monthly payment with what you pay now. A lower monthly payment and a lower total cost are different things, and a loan can give you one without the other.
Why can a loan with a lower rate still cost more?
A longer term spreads the balance over more months. Each payment is smaller, but interest runs for longer, and the total can end up above what your debts cost at their current payments. Unless the loan is at 0%, a fee added to it is charged interest for the whole term as well. Try the same offer over 3 years and over 5 years to see how far the total moves.
Should the fee go into the loan or be paid up front?
Added to the loan, the fee is borrowed with the balances, so the monthly payment rises a little, and at any loan APR above 0% you pay interest on the fee as well. Paid up front, it costs you that amount once. The total paid on the loan side includes the fee either way, so switch the option and compare the two totals.
What happens when one of my current debts is paid off?
Its payment stops. The calculator does not move that money onto the other debts, so the current side shows what you pay if you keep paying each debt as you do now. To put an extra monthly amount toward several debts in snowball or avalanche order, use the debt payoff calculator.
Why does a row say the debt is never paid off?
Each month a debt is charged its APR ÷ 12 on the balance. If the payment is not more than that first month's interest, the balance never falls, so there is no payoff to compare. The message shows that interest, so you can see how much higher the payment has to be.