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 tool computes the monthly payment, lifetime cost (including fees), and effective APR — so you can compare apples-to-apples regardless of how fees are bundled.
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) within three business days of your application. The CFPB recommends comparing at least three offers before committing.
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 computes the effective APR including those fees — the only number that's actually comparable across offers.
Read the verdict bar
The tool highlights the offer with the lowest total cost (monthly × months + fees) and shows the savings against the runner-up. Always check both lifetime cost and monthly payment — the cheapest lifetime cost isn't always the lowest monthly payment.
Trust the effective APR for cross-offer comparison
Effective APR includes upfront fees in the rate calculation. Two offers with the same note rate can have very different effective APRs if one bundles a USD 1,500 origination and the other waives it.
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. Two loans with identical note rates of 6.0% can have effective APRs of 6.0% and 6.4% depending on origination, discount points, and prepaid interest. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau publishes a comparison-shopping toolkit that specifically directs borrowers to compare APRs, not note rates, when evaluating mortgage, auto, and personal loan offers.
What APR misses: prepayment penalties, balloon payments, and the time value of the fees themselves. A loan you'll repay in 3 years rather than 5 doesn't amortise the fees over the full term — making a lower-fee, slightly-higher-rate offer better for short holding periods. The effective APR our tool computes assumes you hold the loan to maturity; for shorter holding periods, the simple monthly payment is the cleaner comparison.
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 — origination fees vary from USD 0 ("no fee loans" that bake the cost into a higher rate) to USD 3,000+. Section C — title insurance, settlement, surveys — is shoppable, and CFPB analysis shows borrowers who shop these save USD 500-1,500 per loan on average.
For auto loans, the equivalent fees are doc fees (state-regulated, USD 75-500 depending on state), title and registration, and dealer add-ons. The Federal Trade Commission has open guidance on dealer-financed auto loan markup — the difference between the rate the bank actually offers and what the dealer charges you, which can be 1-3 percentage points. Shopping pre-approved bank financing 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 roughly USD 4,400 less than the same loan at 7.5% with USD 250 origination — the rate difference dwarfs the upfront fee."
Why Total Cost Beats Monthly Payment
The lender's preferred metric is monthly payment because it's the smallest number — and the longer the term, the smaller it gets. A USD 25,000 loan at 6.5% over 3 years has a USD 766 monthly payment; the same loan over 7 years has a USD 372 monthly payment. The 7-year option looks cheaper because it cuts USD 394 out of your monthly budget — but the lifetime interest balloons from USD 2,580 to USD 6,250. That's the cost of stretching the term.
The comparison tool above sorts offers by total cost (monthly × months + 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.
10 Facts About US Loan Shopping
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 a federally-standardised three-page mortgage disclosure required by the CFPB — every US mortgage lender uses the same template.
CFPB research shows borrowers who get three or more loan offers save USD 1,500 on average over the life of a 30-year mortgage versus borrowers who don't shop.
Auto loan rates from credit unions are typically 0.5-1.5pp lower than bank rates in the US (Federal Reserve G.19 data).
One "discount point" on a US mortgage costs 1% of the loan amount upfront and typically lowers the rate by 0.25pp — break-even is usually 5-7 years.
Personal loan APRs in the US range from 6% (excellent credit) to 36% (subprime) — the same product can have a 6× rate spread based purely on credit score.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits lenders from discriminating on race, gender, religion, age, marital status, or national origin in loan decisions.
Most US conforming loans have no prepayment penalty after 12 months — borrowers can refinance freely as rates change.
EU consumer credit is governed by the Consumer Credit Directive (2008/48/EC), which mandates a standardised "European Consumer Credit Information" form equivalent to the US Loan Estimate.
A 20-month-long shopping window for mortgage rate quotes typically counts as a single inquiry on US credit reports (FICO and VantageScore both deduplicate close-in-time mortgage inquiries).
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. APR is always equal to or higher than the note rate. Always compare APRs across offers, never note rates — two loans with the same note rate can have very different APRs and very 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. VantageScore deduplicates within 14 days. Personal loan and credit card inquiries are NOT deduplicated, so be more selective there. The CFPB explicitly recommends collecting at least three loan offers when shopping 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 6,250 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. As a rule of thumb: take the shortest term whose monthly payment fits inside 30% of your gross monthly income.
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One discount point on a US mortgage costs 1% of the loan amount upfront and typically lowers the rate by 0.25 percentage points. On a USD 300,000 loan, one point is USD 3,000. The break-even depends on the monthly savings — typically 5-7 years. If you plan to keep the loan less than 5 years (sell or refinance), points rarely pay off. If you plan to keep it the full 30 years, points can save 5-15% of total interest. 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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Usually, yes. Federal Reserve G.19 data shows credit unions offer auto loan APRs 0.5-1.5 percentage points lower than commercial banks on average. Credit unions are member-owned and not-for-profit, so they pass spread savings back as lower rates. 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. NCUA-insured credit unions provide the same federal deposit protection as FDIC-insured banks.
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A "no closing cost" loan rolls the lender's costs into a higher interest rate instead of charging them upfront. Typical surcharge is 0.125-0.375 percentage points. The math: on a USD 300,000 30-year mortgage, 0.25pp higher rate costs about USD 16,000 more in interest over the full term, versus paying USD 6,000-8,000 in closing costs upfront. The no-cost loan can win if you'll refinance again in 3-4 years; lose if you hold the loan to maturity. Always run both scenarios.
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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; treat it as your local currency unit). EU mortgages tend to have shorter fixed periods (5-10 years) than US 30-year fixed products, and early-repayment charges are capped under the EU Mortgage Credit Directive. The calculator handles any tenure from 1 to 40 years, so it covers both EU and US ranges. The "effective APR" output is conceptually equivalent to the EU "APRC" (annual percentage rate of charge) required by the directive.
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For US mortgages, a FICO score of 740+ typically qualifies you for the best advertised rates from conventional lenders. Below 740, lenders apply loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs) that increase the rate or require additional points. Below 660, you're usually pushed into FHA loans (with mortgage insurance) or non-QM products at meaningfully higher rates. For auto loans, the breakpoints are typically 720 (best), 660 (prime), 580 (subprime). For personal loans, the gap is even sharper — best rates require 720+ FICO.
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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. Most ASEAN bank US branches (DBS, OCBC, UOB, Maybank) focus on cross-border wealth management and don't compete on US consumer lending rates. The exception is HSBC, which has a meaningful US retail presence and dedicated newcomer/expat mortgage and personal loan programs that accept ITINs and shorter US credit histories. Citi also has specific products for expats and recent immigrants. 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) then shop US credit unions and HSBC/Citi for first major loan; (3) refinance into mainstream conventional pricing once FICO crosses 740. The tool above works the same regardless of which lender's offers you input.
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