The Eight Best Online Loan Calculators

The Eight Best Online Loan Calculators The Eight Best Online Loan Calculators The Eight Best Online Loan CalculatorsThere are a lot of great loan calculators online. We did the research and brought you back our favorites.Applying for any kind of loanâ€"sadlyâ€"means doing a lot of math. You have to do stuff like calculate annual percentage rates (APRs) and figure out how your monthly payment will be affected by the length of your repayment term. With some loans, you even have to factor in taxes and insurance.Heck, getting answers on your student loan payments might as well require you to go to school to figure it outâ€"which would then mean taking out yet another student loan to pay for it!(We’re joking about that last one. But only slightly.)However, just because you have to do some math, doesn’t mean you have to do it all on your own. There are lots of great loan calculators available online that ask for your basic loan info and then do the hard part (read: the math part) for you.This is why we combed through a ton of online offerings before settling on the best, most usable loan calculators that we could find.Here’s what we recommend.1. Personal Loan Calculator  Bankrate.comBankrate.com  (@Bankrate) is a great website that lets you compare rates on a whole bunch of different loans,  credit cards, and other financial products. And to help you do that, they offer a sleek, simple  loan calculator  that’s a cinch to use. It can be used for any kind of loan, including  mortgages  and  auto loans, but there are lots of auto and mortgage specific calculators out there that offer more specific features.We recommend using this one for standard  personal loans. The pie-chart feature that shows how much you’ll pay in interest versus the rest of your balance is a lovely touch.2. Auto Loan Calculator  Cars.comI know. You’re absolutely  shocked  that a site like  Cars.com  (@carsdotcom) would offer one of the best  auto loan calculators. We know. We’re surprised too. In all seriousness, though, this is a great calculator that includ es lots of car-specific data points. For instance, when you’re buying a car, you’re probably going to get hit with sales tax. So this calculator lets you enter that tax rate in, giving you a full picture of how much you’re paying. It even has a feature where you can estimate and factor in the value of your trade-in.Nobody likes being hit with surprise fees and taxes, so the Cars.com calculator makes sure you get as clear a snapshot as you can before actually applying.3. Mortgage Loan Calculator  Zillow.comIf you’ve spent any amount of time shopping for a house, apartment, or condo, then you’re probably familiar with  Zillow.com  (@zillow), one of the leading real estate listing sites. To help prospective homebuyers, they’ve created a  mortgage loan calculator  that gives you a  lot  of informationâ€"without getting busy or hard to use.There’s a basic version of the calculator where you can enter cost, down payment, APR, and term-length to get a broad  overview of your loan, and then a more advanced version where you can enter in property tax, home insurance, and HOA dues. The calculator is geared around your expected monthly payment, which it breaks down into its various parts, letting you see how much you’re paying each month in principal and interest, taxes, insurance, and HOA fees. The calculator not only provides you a full  amortization  schedule as well, it even pops that information into a handy-dandy graph!4. 5. Debt Snowball/Avalanche Calculators  Undebt.It    Unbury.MeWhen you’re making a plan to pay down your existing debt, you’re probably choosing one of two methods. Either you’re focusing on paying off the debt with the lowest balance first, also known as the “Debt Snowball” method, or you’re making your highest-interest debts your top priority, better known as the “Debt Avalanche” method.No matter which method you choose, you’re going to need a calculator to help you make a plan of attack. Luckily, there are a ctually  two  really great calculators out there that will help you with both methods. They’re offered by  Undebt.It  (@undebt_it) and  Unbury.Me  (@unburyme). Neither calculator is super fancy because they don’t need to be. They walk you through the debt organization process and give you a clear picture of how long it will take you to become debt free, how much you’ll be paying each month, and how much you’ll pay in interest along the way.If you want to learn more about the debt snowball and debt avalanche methods, you can check out our blog posts:Want to Get Out of Debt? Then Let It Snow(ball)!Sweep Away Your Debt With a Debt Avalanche6. Federal Student Loan Calculator  StudentLoans.Gov  If you have federal student loans, then why not use the federal government’s  loan calculator  to help you repay them? The best part about their calculator is that you can log into the  StudentLoans.gov  (@FAFSA) website and it can instantly access all the info for your outstanding loan s. No more typing all of your info into the fields. It also gives you payment plans, estimates, and projected loan forgiveness based on what type of repayment plan you’ve selected or are eligible for.To learn more about student loan forgiveness, check out our blog post:Student Loan Forgiveness7. Private Student Loan Calculator  StudentLoanHero.comIf you have a mixture of private  and  public loans, then we recommend checking out the calculators offered by  StudentLoanHero.com  (@StudentLoanHero), a website created to help people organize, manage, and repay their student debt. They have  20 different calculators, most of which are designed for different aspects of student debt, both private and public, including calculators that will help you with consolidation and refinancing.To learn more about student loan consolidation, check out our blog post:The OppLoans Guide to Consolidating Student Loan Debt8. Payday Loan Calculator  CSGNetwork.comBefore taking out a  payday loan, you sh ould know what you’re getting yourself into. Because, while the interest rates for these short-term,  no credit check  loans might seem reasonable, their APRs show you just how expensive they are compared to other types of loans. That’s why, when you’re considering taking out a payday loan, you should  always check the APR first. But don’t worry, all you need is the principal amount you’re borrowing, the length of your repayment term, and the interest charge, which might be referred to as a “loan fee”. (Unlike other loans, payday loans are designed to be paid back in a single, lump-sum payment, which means that interest is often charged as a flat fee, rather than an ongoing rate.)Once you have that information, you can visit  this payday loan APR calculator  provided by  CSGNetwork.com. The calculator might not look like much, but it’ll get your APR calculated lickety-split. And once you see how expensive your loan is, you might consider looking for something a littl e more affordable. Might we suggest an  installment loan  from  OppLoans?Do you have an online loan calculator that you like to use? Let us know! You can  email us, or you can shoot us at tweet at  @Opploans.