Loan Comparison Calculator
Compare up to three loan offers side-by-side. See monthly payment, total cost, total interest, and effective APR with fees. Free, no signup.
Loan Comparison Calculator
Enter up to three loan offers: the interest rate on the note, the term, and every fee paid upfront. The tool computes the monthly payment, the interest, the total cost and the APR — the note rate with those fees folded in, as US Regulation Z defines it — plus the EU APRC. It assumes the fees are paid at closing and the loan runs to term.
Offer A
Offer B
Offer C
How to Use the Loan Comparison Calculator
Collect Loan Estimates from at least two lenders
In the US, every lender must give you a federally-standardised Loan Estimate (LE) no later than the third business day after it receives your application (Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.19). Freddie Mac's research found one extra rate quote saved borrowers about USD 1,500 over the life of the loan, and five quotes about USD 3,000.
Enter the offered rate and the upfront fees separately
Use the note rate (the headline interest rate) in the rate field. Add lender origination, points, and other upfront fees in the fees field. The tool treats every fee entered as a finance charge paid at closing and computes the APR the way Regulation Z's Appendix J does: the monthly rate at which the payments repay the loan less those fees, times twelve.
Read the verdict bar
The tool highlights the offer with the lowest total cost (every payment plus the fees) and shows the saving against the runner-up, and names the lowest-APR offer separately — at the defaults those are different offers, because Offer C's lower rate runs two years longer. If the offers borrow different amounts, compare APRs, not totals.
Use the APR for cross-offer comparison
The APR includes upfront fees in the rate calculation. A USD 25,000 five-year loan at 6.0% has an APR of 6.00% with no fee and 6.42% with a USD 250 fee. The EU APRC is the same calculation compounded over a year, so it is always a little higher.
Loan Shopping in the United States — Why the Note Rate Lies
Note Rate vs APR — A Federally-Mandated Distinction
The note rate is the headline interest rate — what gets advertised. The annual percentage rate (APR) is a federally-required calculation under the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z) that incorporates upfront fees, points, and most lender charges into an effective rate over the full loan term. A USD 25,000 five-year loan at a 6.0% note rate has an APR of 6.00% with no fee and 6.42% with a USD 250 origination fee. Regulation Z counts a disclosed APR as accurate if it is within 1/8 of a percentage point of the true figure (12 CFR 1026.22).
What APR assumes: that you keep the loan to the end. A loan you repay in 3 years rather than 5 spreads the upfront fees over fewer payments, so a lower-fee, slightly-higher-rate offer can be the better deal for a short holding period. Any prepayment penalty is not in the APR either. The APR our tool computes assumes you hold the loan to maturity.
Fees You Should Always Ask About
For mortgages, the federal Loan Estimate breaks fees into three sections: A (origination), B (services you can't shop for), and C (services you can shop for). Section A is where lenders compete on their own charges; a "no fee" loan usually recovers them through a higher rate instead. Section C — title insurance, settlement, surveys — is shoppable, so ask for the provider list and compare it.
For auto loans, the equivalent fees are documentation fees, title and registration, and dealer add-ons. On dealer-arranged financing the rate you are quoted can include a dealer markup over the rate the lender offered the dealer. A pre-approval from a bank or credit union first gives you a benchmark to push back against dealer offers.
"A USD 25,000 personal loan at 6.5% over 5 years with USD 0 fees costs about USD 960 less than the same loan at 7.5% with USD 250 origination — USD 710 of that is the rate, only USD 250 the fee."
Why Total Cost Beats Monthly Payment
The monthly payment is the smallest number a lender can lead with — and the longer the term, the smaller it gets. A USD 25,000 loan at 6.5% over 3 years has a USD 766.23 monthly payment; the same loan over 7 years has a USD 371.24 monthly payment. The 7-year option looks cheaper because it cuts about USD 395 out of your monthly budget — but the lifetime interest rises from about USD 2,584 to about USD 6,184. That's the cost of stretching the term.
The comparison tool above sorts offers by total cost (every payment plus the fees) precisely because that's the number lenders rarely lead with. If you can comfortably afford the higher monthly payment of a shorter-term loan, shorter wins on every loan product — mortgage, auto, personal. If you can't, the tool quantifies exactly how much that monthly-payment comfort is costing you over the life of the loan, in actual dollars rather than vague percentages, so the trade-off is explicit rather than implicit.
What the disclosure rules require, and what one extra rate quote is worth
The Truth in Lending Act (1968) requires lenders to disclose the APR — including most fees — so borrowers can compare offers on a uniform basis.
The Loan Estimate (LE) is the standard mortgage disclosure required by Regulation Z (12 CFR 1026.37): a federally related mortgage must use model form H-24, so offers line up section by section.
Freddie Mac's 2018 research found that one additional rate quote saved mortgage borrowers about USD 1,500 on average over the life of the loan, and five quotes about USD 3,000 — yet nearly half of borrowers do not shop.
On 26 December 2025, NCUA's survey put the average 60-month new-car loan at 5.44% at credit unions and 7.41% at banks — worth a quote before you accept dealer financing.
One "discount point" on a US mortgage costs 1% of the loan amount upfront. Freddie Mac's 2018 analysis assumed one point buys 0.25pp off a 30-year rate; on USD 300,000 at 6.5% that saves USD 49.05 a month, about five years to earn back.
The average 36-month unsecured loan was 10.64% at credit unions and 12.00% at banks in NCUA's December 2025 survey — and an individual quote moves with your credit score.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits lenders from discriminating on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status or age, or because income comes from public assistance (Regulation B).
Most US mortgages carry no prepayment penalty. Regulation Z allows one only on a fixed-rate qualified mortgage that is not higher-priced, and only in the first three years — at most 2% in years one and two, 1% in year three (12 CFR 1026.43(g)).
EU consumer credit falls under the Consumer Credit Directive — 2008/48/EC, replaced by Directive (EU) 2023/2225 from 20 November 2026 — which requires the Standard European Consumer Credit Information form before you sign.
Mortgage, auto and student-loan inquiries made inside FICO's rate-shopping window — 14 days on older score versions, 45 on newer ones — count as a single inquiry.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The note rate is the interest rate stated on your loan note — what the lender uses to compute interest charges. The APR (annual percentage rate) is a federally-required disclosure under Regulation Z that adds origination, points, and most upfront lender fees back into the rate. With upfront finance charges the APR is above the note rate; with none it equals it. Compare APRs across offers, not note rates — two loans with the same note rate can have different APRs and different total costs.
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Not meaningfully, if you do it within a short window. FICO scores deduplicate mortgage, auto, and student loan inquiries that happen within a 14-45 day window (depending on FICO version) — treating them as a single inquiry. Personal loan and credit card inquiries are NOT deduplicated, so be more selective there. Freddie Mac's research found that even one extra quote saved about USD 1,500 over the life of a mortgage.
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Only if you genuinely can't afford the shorter-term monthly payment. Longer terms cost dramatically more in total interest — a USD 25,000 personal loan at 6.5% costs USD 2,580 in interest over 3 years versus USD 6,180 over 7 years. The "comfort" of a smaller monthly payment is paid for in lifetime interest. The tool's "total cost" column makes this trade-off explicit. The shortest term whose payment you can carry comfortably is the cheapest.
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One discount point on a US mortgage costs 1% of the loan amount upfront; how much it lowers the rate is the lender's offer (Freddie Mac's 2018 analysis assumed 0.25 percentage points). On a USD 300,000 loan, one point is USD 3,000. The break-even is the point's cost divided by the monthly saving; if you will sell or refinance before then, the point does not pay off. Example: on USD 300,000 over 30 years, cutting 6.5% to 6.25% saves about USD 49 a month, so the USD 3,000 point pays for itself in about five years. The tool above includes "upfront fees" — entering one point as the fee lets you see whether the buydown is worth it.
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On average, yes: NCUA's survey for 26 December 2025 put a 60-month new-car loan at 5.44% at credit unions against 7.41% at banks. Credit unions are member-owned and not-for-profit. The trade-off is membership eligibility — most credit unions require an employer affiliation, a residency tie, or a small one-time donation to qualifying organization. Deposits at federally insured credit unions are covered by the NCUA's Share Insurance Fund up to USD 250,000, the same limit as FDIC insurance.
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A "no closing cost" loan rolls the lender's costs into a higher interest rate instead of charging them upfront. The math: on a USD 300,000 30-year mortgage, 0.25pp higher rate costs about USD 15,700 more in interest over the full term at a 4% base rate and about USD 17,850 at 6.5%. Set that against the closing costs on your Loan Estimate: the no-cost loan can win if you will refinance or sell early, and loses if you hold the loan to maturity. Enter both versions above as two offers.
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Yes — the math is universal. Change the loan amount to whatever currency you're working in (the displayed "USD" is a label, not a calculation factor). Under the Mortgage Credit Directive (2014/17/EU) any compensation a lender may charge for early repayment must be fair and objective and may not exceed the lender's financial loss. The EU's APRC is not the same number as the US APR: both solve for the same monthly rate, but the APRC counts time in years of 12 equal months and so compounds it, (1 + monthly rate)^12 − 1, where the APR multiplies it by 12. The tool shows both.
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For conventional US mortgages, pricing steps by credit-score band: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs) that rise as the score falls, which lenders pass on as a higher rate or extra points. Fannie Mae publishes the current bands in its LLPA matrix. Lower scores often point borrowers towards FHA loans, which carry mortgage insurance. Auto and personal lenders set their own score tiers, so ask each lender which band you fall in.
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US personal loan rates (6-36% APR) are roughly comparable to Singapore and Malaysia (6-24% APR), but the rate-shopping infrastructure differs. The US has a federally-standardised disclosure regime (TILA, the Loan Estimate, the standardised APR formula) that makes side-by-side comparison straightforward. ASEAN markets vary — Singapore's MAS-regulated banks publish effective interest rate (EIR) disclosures that work similarly to US APR, while less-regulated markets can quote "flat" interest rates that look 30-50% lower than the equivalent reducing-balance APR. If you're comparing Asian offers, always convert flat rates to reducing-balance APRs before using this tool. See our Loan & EMI Calculator for the standard ASEAN reducing-balance computation.
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Probably not for a US-based loan. ASEAN banks generally do not lend to US consumers, and HSBC — once the obvious choice — sold its US mass-market retail branches to Citizens and Cathay Bank in 2021-22. For most ASEAN immigrants in the US, the practical path is: (1) build US credit for 12-24 months with a secured card or credit-builder loan; (2) shop local credit unions and banks, including any that offer newcomer programmes, for the first major loan; (3) refinance into mainstream conventional pricing once your score improves. The tool above works the same regardless of which lender's offers you input.
Method & sources
How it computes
Each offer is amortised month by month in integer cents (interest at rate ÷ 12, last payment absorbs the rounding). Total cost = principal + interest + upfront fees. APR per Regulation Z Appendix J: 12 × the monthly rate at which the actual payments repay the loan less those fees. EU APRC: (1 + that rate)^12 − 1. Fees are assumed paid at closing and the loan held to term (LoanOfferKernel on MortgageKernel).
What this tool implements
- APR: "the nominal annual percentage rate determined by multiplying the unit-period rate by the number of unit-periods in a year" (Regulation Z, Appendix J(b)(1)); the unit-period rate equates the amount financed — the loan less the upfront fees entered — with the present value of every scheduled payment, the odd last payment included. A disclosed APR is accurate within 1/8 of a percentage point (12 CFR 1026.22(a)(2)).
- APRC: the same equation with time in years of "12 equal months" (Directive (EU) 2023/2225; Mortgage Credit Directive 2014/17/EU), so APRC = (1 + monthly rate)^12 − 1 and is never below the APR.
- Money in integer cents: total interest excludes fees, and principal + interest + fees equals the total cost shown, to the cent.
- Truth in Lending (Regulation Z): Loan Estimate delivered no later than the third business day after application (12 CFR 1026.19(e)), on model form H-24 for a federally related mortgage (12 CFR 1026.37(o)(3)); prepayment penalties only on fixed-rate, non-higher-priced qualified mortgages, for three years, at most 2%/2%/1% (12 CFR 1026.43(g)).
- EU: Consumer Credit Directive 2008/48/EC is repealed with effect from 20 November 2026 by Directive (EU) 2023/2225; under the Mortgage Credit Directive, early-repayment compensation may not exceed the lender's financial loss (Article 25(3)).
- Corrected 2026-10-19: total interest included the fees; the APR search stopped at 100% and fell back to the note rate when fees reached the loan; the US APR was called equivalent to the EU APRC; the rate field was labelled "% APR"; "USD 372" / "USD 394" for $371.24 / $394.99; the ECOA list ("gender"; colour and public assistance missing); unsourced figures removed (6-36% personal-loan APRs, 5-7 year point break-even, 0.125-0.375 pp surcharges, $6,000-8,000 closing costs, the 30%-of-income rule); credit-union and unsecured-loan figures now from NCUA, Q4 2025.
Sources
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulation Z, Appendix J to Part 1026 — Annual Percentage Rate Computations for Closed-End Credit Transactions. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/part-1026/appendix-Appendix…
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.22 — Determination of annual percentage rate. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/part-1026/section-1026.22
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.19 — Certain mortgage and variable-rate transactions. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/part-1026/section-1026.19
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.37 — Content of disclosures for certain mortgage transactions (Loan Estimate). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/part-1026/section-1026.37
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.43 — Minimum standards for transactions secured by a dwelling. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/part-1026/section-1026.43
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1002.2(z) — Regulation B, prohibited basis. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-12/part-1002/section-1002.2
- Directive (EU) 2023/2225 on credit agreements for consumers (Annex: APRC; Article 47: repeal of 2008/48/EC from 20 November 2026). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32…
- Directive 2014/17/EU on credit agreements for consumers relating to residential immovable property, Article 25. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32…
What can make this go out of date
- The NCUA rate comparisons quoted on the page are its 2025 Q4 survey; NCUA publishes one each quarter.
Abridged — the full review record for this tool runs longer than the list above.
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