Loan Comparison Calculator

Compare two loans on total cost, including fees, rather than on the headline interest rate alone.

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Input
Output
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About loan comparison calculator

Loan Comparison Calculator is a small tool that does one job while you watch. Nothing is saved, so a reload gives you a clean start.

There is no account and no upload step. Whatever you paste lives in a variable until you close the tab, and then it does not.

You will find it under Money, alongside 20 other tools for the same sort of job.

Runs in this tab, so nothing you type is uploaded.

How to use it

01
Start it
Every control is on the tool itself. Keyboard shortcuts, where there are any, are listed beside it.
02
Watch it run
It updates in the page as you go. Nothing is sent anywhere, so it keeps working with the network off.
03
Close when done
Nothing is stored between visits. Reloading gives you a clean start rather than picking up where you left off.

Examples

Two 15,000 loans over 5 years
A no-fee 7.9% loan against a 6.5% loan with a 300 arrangement fee
Input
loanAAmount: 15000
loanARatePercent: 7.9
loanATermYears: 5
loanAFees: 0
loanBAmount: 15000
loanBRatePercent: 6.5
loanBTermYears: 5
loanBFees: 300
Output
Loan amonthly payment: 303.43
Loan atotal cost: 18205.71
Loan atotal interest: 3205.71
Loan bmonthly payment: 293.49
Loan btotal cost: 17909.53
Loan btotal interest: 2609.53
Cheaper loan: B
Cost difference: 296.18

Questions

Does Loan Comparison Calculator work offline?+

Yes. It is JavaScript running in this tab, so once the page has loaded it needs nothing further from the network. Put the machine in flight mode and it carries on. Nothing you do here is sent anywhere, because there is nowhere for it to go.

Does it remember anything between visits?+

No. Reload the page and it starts from nothing. There is no account, no saved state and no cookie holding your last session. That is a deliberate trade: it cannot lose your data because it never keeps any.

Is it accurate?+

Timing comes from performance.now(), the high resolution clock the browser provides, rather than from setInterval, which drifts by a few milliseconds every tick and compounds over minutes. What can still shift things is the browser throttling a tab in the background, so leave it visible if the timing matters.

Does it make a sound?+

Where a sound makes sense, it is generated with the Web Audio API rather than loaded as a file, so there is nothing to download and nothing to block. Browsers refuse to start audio until you have interacted with the page, which is why the first press is what switches it on.

Can I use Loan Comparison Calculator on a phone?+

Yes. The controls are sized for touch and the layout collapses to one column on a narrow screen. Bear in mind that a phone locking its screen will suspend the page, and timing stops with it.