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Question about loan interest rates in Canada/USA

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  • N Offline
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    Nish Nishant
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    I've seen loan companies advertise loan offers for people where they provide an interest rate. I was just wondering how this interest is calculated. Assume I take a loan for $3000 and the interest rate is 25% and that I am planning to pay it back in 4 months (4 installments). Is it going to be :- (1) 25% of 3000 = 750. Thus amount to be repaid is 3000+750 = 3750. So amount per installment = 3750/4 = $937.5 OR (2) 25% of 3000 = 750 for 1 year. So for 4 months it will be 750/3 = 250 (since 4 months is 1/3rd of 1 year) Thus amt to be repaid is now 3000+250 = 3250. Installment amt per month = 3250/4 = $812.5 Could someone tell me if it's (1) or (2) please? Thanks, Nish

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    • N Nish Nishant

      I've seen loan companies advertise loan offers for people where they provide an interest rate. I was just wondering how this interest is calculated. Assume I take a loan for $3000 and the interest rate is 25% and that I am planning to pay it back in 4 months (4 installments). Is it going to be :- (1) 25% of 3000 = 750. Thus amount to be repaid is 3000+750 = 3750. So amount per installment = 3750/4 = $937.5 OR (2) 25% of 3000 = 750 for 1 year. So for 4 months it will be 750/3 = 250 (since 4 months is 1/3rd of 1 year) Thus amt to be repaid is now 3000+250 = 3250. Installment amt per month = 3250/4 = $812.5 Could someone tell me if it's (1) or (2) please? Thanks, Nish

      L Offline
      L Offline
      leppie
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Could someone tell me if it's (1) or (2) please? Neither :) Rip out excel and use it functions, IIRC u need to get the NET PRESENT VALUE, using $3000 as initial amount, 4 as the period, 25/12 for interest (assumed monthly accumalated), and the FUTURE VALUE = $0. The result should give you your payment (i think :p) and its probably a negtive amount, as its outgoing and +$3000 as its incoming. Sniff, takes me back to business economics days :(( HTH ;) xacc-ide 0.0.99-preview2 (now with integrated debugger)

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      • L leppie

        Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Could someone tell me if it's (1) or (2) please? Neither :) Rip out excel and use it functions, IIRC u need to get the NET PRESENT VALUE, using $3000 as initial amount, 4 as the period, 25/12 for interest (assumed monthly accumalated), and the FUTURE VALUE = $0. The result should give you your payment (i think :p) and its probably a negtive amount, as its outgoing and +$3000 as its incoming. Sniff, takes me back to business economics days :(( HTH ;) xacc-ide 0.0.99-preview2 (now with integrated debugger)

        N Offline
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        Nish Nishant
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        Thanks Leppie, I used your instructions and got this :- Interest = 25/12 = 2.083333%

        3000 750 62.4999900 812.49999
        2250 750 46.8749925 796.8749925
        1500 750 31.2499950 781.249995
        750 750 15.6249975 765.6249975
        TOT 156.249975 3156.249975

        Hey, the interest I pay went down :-) Looks like 25% is not such a bad interest amount after all :-)

        L C 3 Replies Last reply
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        • N Nish Nishant

          Thanks Leppie, I used your instructions and got this :- Interest = 25/12 = 2.083333%

          3000 750 62.4999900 812.49999
          2250 750 46.8749925 796.8749925
          1500 750 31.2499950 781.249995
          750 750 15.6249975 765.6249975
          TOT 156.249975 3156.249975

          Hey, the interest I pay went down :-) Looks like 25% is not such a bad interest amount after all :-)

          L Offline
          L Offline
          leppie
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Looks like 25% is not such a bad interest amount after all Its probably not a bad very short term rate, but I dont even think our credit card rates (here in South Africa) are that high. As soon as your repayment period goes over 36 months, interests starts accumilating heavily. xacc-ide 0.0.99-preview2 (now with integrated debugger)

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          • N Nish Nishant

            I've seen loan companies advertise loan offers for people where they provide an interest rate. I was just wondering how this interest is calculated. Assume I take a loan for $3000 and the interest rate is 25% and that I am planning to pay it back in 4 months (4 installments). Is it going to be :- (1) 25% of 3000 = 750. Thus amount to be repaid is 3000+750 = 3750. So amount per installment = 3750/4 = $937.5 OR (2) 25% of 3000 = 750 for 1 year. So for 4 months it will be 750/3 = 250 (since 4 months is 1/3rd of 1 year) Thus amt to be repaid is now 3000+250 = 3250. Installment amt per month = 3250/4 = $812.5 Could someone tell me if it's (1) or (2) please? Thanks, Nish

            J Offline
            J Offline
            jonathan15
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            I hope that the Rates quoted over there are nothing like the way rates work in the UK. 25% would get one of these :wtf: The only things you see that high here are some nasty store-cards and rates for companies tha tdeal with people who generally would not be able to get credit elsewhere. I have a loan at 6.5% and none of my credit card rates are over 14.9% Jon

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            • J jonathan15

              I hope that the Rates quoted over there are nothing like the way rates work in the UK. 25% would get one of these :wtf: The only things you see that high here are some nasty store-cards and rates for companies tha tdeal with people who generally would not be able to get credit elsewhere. I have a loan at 6.5% and none of my credit card rates are over 14.9% Jon

              D Offline
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              Dan Neely
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              25% is either the missed payment penalty rate on a CC, or the 'your credit stinks but we'll give you some credit at a brutal rate anyway on the assumption that even if you go bankrupt we'll've still fleeced a profit out of you" rate.

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              • J jonathan15

                I hope that the Rates quoted over there are nothing like the way rates work in the UK. 25% would get one of these :wtf: The only things you see that high here are some nasty store-cards and rates for companies tha tdeal with people who generally would not be able to get credit elsewhere. I have a loan at 6.5% and none of my credit card rates are over 14.9% Jon

                N Offline
                N Offline
                Nish Nishant
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                Banks in Canada are pretty unfriendly to new people - they treat no-credit-history as equivalent to bad-credit-history. Guilty until proven innocent here. It sucks, but they don't probably have any better options - too many new immigrants are dodgy types and banks may have had bad experiences with them. Anyway my post was not about the interest rate as such - I m ok with a 25% rate. I am interested in how the interest is calculated. Leppie gave me a rough idea of how it's done and I did some calculations and it turned out that 25% is actually a decent interest rate for a short term loan. See my reply to Leppie where I've given the full set of calculations.

                R 1 Reply Last reply
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                • N Nish Nishant

                  I've seen loan companies advertise loan offers for people where they provide an interest rate. I was just wondering how this interest is calculated. Assume I take a loan for $3000 and the interest rate is 25% and that I am planning to pay it back in 4 months (4 installments). Is it going to be :- (1) 25% of 3000 = 750. Thus amount to be repaid is 3000+750 = 3750. So amount per installment = 3750/4 = $937.5 OR (2) 25% of 3000 = 750 for 1 year. So for 4 months it will be 750/3 = 250 (since 4 months is 1/3rd of 1 year) Thus amt to be repaid is now 3000+250 = 3250. Installment amt per month = 3250/4 = $812.5 Could someone tell me if it's (1) or (2) please? Thanks, Nish

                  I Offline
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                  icabod
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  Over here in the UK there are two ways that loan interest is calculated, and it's something that has caused problems for people in the past. Say your loan was @ 10% interest. It could be 10%, or 10%APR. There's a big difference in how much you pay back in the long-run. 10% APR is calculated on a monthly basis I think, so as you pay more of the loan off, the interest becomes less (this is all calculated beforehand, so you pay the same each month). With 10% (not APR), the interest is literally 10% of the amount you borrow. In your examples, APR would be (2). As I say, that's in the UK - but people have been "stung" before by seemingly low interest rates, but not realising it's not APR, and so end up paying more. Also, with APR interest rates, if you pay the loan off early you often save money as the interest will not have been added at that point - with non-APR, you still have to pay it all back including the interest. Make sense? I'm not a financial advisor (I'd have lots of unhappy customers if I were), but that's what I understand about UK rates.

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                  • N Nish Nishant

                    I've seen loan companies advertise loan offers for people where they provide an interest rate. I was just wondering how this interest is calculated. Assume I take a loan for $3000 and the interest rate is 25% and that I am planning to pay it back in 4 months (4 installments). Is it going to be :- (1) 25% of 3000 = 750. Thus amount to be repaid is 3000+750 = 3750. So amount per installment = 3750/4 = $937.5 OR (2) 25% of 3000 = 750 for 1 year. So for 4 months it will be 750/3 = 250 (since 4 months is 1/3rd of 1 year) Thus amt to be repaid is now 3000+250 = 3250. Installment amt per month = 3250/4 = $812.5 Could someone tell me if it's (1) or (2) please? Thanks, Nish

                    C Offline
                    C Offline
                    Chris Maunder
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    You're assuming the fine print allows you to pay back the full amount within 4 months. Check that there isn't a minimum loan period, penalties for early payment, loan exit fees and loan establishment fees. cheers, Chris Maunder

                    CodeProject.com : C++ MVP

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                    • C Chris Maunder

                      You're assuming the fine print allows you to pay back the full amount within 4 months. Check that there isn't a minimum loan period, penalties for early payment, loan exit fees and loan establishment fees. cheers, Chris Maunder

                      CodeProject.com : C++ MVP

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                      Xiangyang Liu
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      Chris Maunder wrote: You're assuming the fine print allows you to pay back the full amount within 4 months. With 25% rate I bet the bank is praying that you never pay back the principal amount, just the interest every month (unless the inflation rate too high).[

                      My articles and software tools

                      ](http://mysite.verizon.net/XiangYangL/index.htm)

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                      • N Nish Nishant

                        Thanks Leppie, I used your instructions and got this :- Interest = 25/12 = 2.083333%

                        3000 750 62.4999900 812.49999
                        2250 750 46.8749925 796.8749925
                        1500 750 31.2499950 781.249995
                        750 750 15.6249975 765.6249975
                        TOT 156.249975 3156.249975

                        Hey, the interest I pay went down :-) Looks like 25% is not such a bad interest amount after all :-)

                        L Offline
                        L Offline
                        leppie
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        Here's the excel function: =PMT(0.25/12,4,3000) and that equals 4 payments of -789.46. xacc-ide 0.0.99-preview2 (now with integrated debugger)

                        R 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • N Nish Nishant

                          Banks in Canada are pretty unfriendly to new people - they treat no-credit-history as equivalent to bad-credit-history. Guilty until proven innocent here. It sucks, but they don't probably have any better options - too many new immigrants are dodgy types and banks may have had bad experiences with them. Anyway my post was not about the interest rate as such - I m ok with a 25% rate. I am interested in how the interest is calculated. Leppie gave me a rough idea of how it's done and I did some calculations and it turned out that 25% is actually a decent interest rate for a short term loan. See my reply to Leppie where I've given the full set of calculations.

                          R Offline
                          R Offline
                          Rocky Moore
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          Nishant Sivakumar wrote: they treat no-credit-history as equivalent to bad-credit-history. I experienced that here in the USA when I was much yonger and had did not have a credit history. However, a few yeras later when I was making $55K per year, it did not matter that I had not credit history, they had over $80K waiting for me for whatever my need in available credit card credit most at 12.5% although the first 6 months would be at 2.5%. This is how they snag people into going in over thier heads. The point here in the USA, is simply, you make enough money, no credit or bad credit does not matter. You make little money and have no credit history, it is the same as having bad credit. Rocky <>< Latest Post: Cool ASP.NET 2.0 feature! Blog: www.RockyMoore.com/TheCoder/[^]

                          1 Reply Last reply
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                          • N Nish Nishant

                            I've seen loan companies advertise loan offers for people where they provide an interest rate. I was just wondering how this interest is calculated. Assume I take a loan for $3000 and the interest rate is 25% and that I am planning to pay it back in 4 months (4 installments). Is it going to be :- (1) 25% of 3000 = 750. Thus amount to be repaid is 3000+750 = 3750. So amount per installment = 3750/4 = $937.5 OR (2) 25% of 3000 = 750 for 1 year. So for 4 months it will be 750/3 = 250 (since 4 months is 1/3rd of 1 year) Thus amt to be repaid is now 3000+250 = 3250. Installment amt per month = 3250/4 = $812.5 Could someone tell me if it's (1) or (2) please? Thanks, Nish

                            J Offline
                            J Offline
                            Jeremy Falcon
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            Not many loans work like that (at least in the US). They are amortized through a means of paying more interest up first, so that if you don't follow through with the loan, they get as much up front as possible. To really oversimply the issue, it would be like... 3,000 * (.25 / 12) = x ...where 12 is the loan term in months. According to this forumula, you'd pay about 312.50 a month for the loan to pay it off. But, the amounts (principal and interest) are adjusted according to a predetermined amortization table so pay less principal and more interest up front. Running it through one of my calcs I get a month payment of $285.13 I wish to got I'd get some info on amortizaton calcutions though. Most of the stuff I've read has always said "it's too complicated" which is just another way of saying the author doesn't know himself/herself. Jeremy Falcon

                            R 1 Reply Last reply
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                            • L leppie

                              Here's the excel function: =PMT(0.25/12,4,3000) and that equals 4 payments of -789.46. xacc-ide 0.0.99-preview2 (now with integrated debugger)

                              R Offline
                              R Offline
                              Richard Stringer
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              Heres a C function that works for all cases /--------------------------------------------------------------- // Desc: returns payment for amt financed for num payments // Params:apr (percentage rate as whole num),num ( number of payments,amt (amount financed) // returns: the payment per period // requires math.h //--------------------------------------------------------------- double Calc_Payment3(double apr,int num,double amt) { double m1,m2,temp; temp=apr/1200; /* apr/12/100 */ temp+=1; temp=pow(temp,(double)num); m1=temp; temp=1/m1; m2=1-temp; /* base factor */ temp=apr/1200; m1=temp/m2; return(amt*m1); } //--------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Suppose you were an idiot... And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself. --Mark Twain -- modified at 16:29 Monday 10th October, 2005

                              L 1 Reply Last reply
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                              • N Nish Nishant

                                Thanks Leppie, I used your instructions and got this :- Interest = 25/12 = 2.083333%

                                3000 750 62.4999900 812.49999
                                2250 750 46.8749925 796.8749925
                                1500 750 31.2499950 781.249995
                                750 750 15.6249975 765.6249975
                                TOT 156.249975 3156.249975

                                Hey, the interest I pay went down :-) Looks like 25% is not such a bad interest amount after all :-)

                                C Offline
                                C Offline
                                Colin Angus Mackay
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                Nishant Sivakumar wrote: Looks like 25% is not such a bad interest amount after all :omg: For a loan I would just walk away at 10%. I would expect a reasonable amount to be in the 5-7% range for an unsecured loan, and 4.75-5.75% for a secured loan. Given that it is short term, I would stick it on a credit card - Mine is currently at 15.9%, although I've got an offer in for a balance transfer at 5.9% so I'd transfer it after the month interest free grace.


                                My: Blog | Photos "Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in." -- Confucious

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • J Jeremy Falcon

                                  Not many loans work like that (at least in the US). They are amortized through a means of paying more interest up first, so that if you don't follow through with the loan, they get as much up front as possible. To really oversimply the issue, it would be like... 3,000 * (.25 / 12) = x ...where 12 is the loan term in months. According to this forumula, you'd pay about 312.50 a month for the loan to pay it off. But, the amounts (principal and interest) are adjusted according to a predetermined amortization table so pay less principal and more interest up front. Running it through one of my calcs I get a month payment of $285.13 I wish to got I'd get some info on amortizaton calcutions though. Most of the stuff I've read has always said "it's too complicated" which is just another way of saying the author doesn't know himself/herself. Jeremy Falcon

                                  R Offline
                                  R Offline
                                  Richard Stringer
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  This is the norm for auto loans and consumer loans - but not home loans etc.. We have to use it from time to time in certain States when figuring insurance payments. Its pretty simple. Here is a link to the process. Its called the Rule of 78's http://www.obre.state.il.us/CONSUMER/Tips/RULEOF78.HTM [^] Richard Suppose you were an idiot... And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself. --Mark Twain

                                  J 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • R Richard Stringer

                                    Heres a C function that works for all cases /--------------------------------------------------------------- // Desc: returns payment for amt financed for num payments // Params:apr (percentage rate as whole num),num ( number of payments,amt (amount financed) // returns: the payment per period // requires math.h //--------------------------------------------------------------- double Calc_Payment3(double apr,int num,double amt) { double m1,m2,temp; temp=apr/1200; /* apr/12/100 */ temp+=1; temp=pow(temp,(double)num); m1=temp; temp=1/m1; m2=1-temp; /* base factor */ temp=apr/1200; m1=temp/m2; return(amt*m1); } //--------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Suppose you were an idiot... And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself. --Mark Twain -- modified at 16:29 Monday 10th October, 2005

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                                    L Offline
                                    leppie
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    Glad to see you changed the numbers :) I had a real WTF moment reading the email notification ;P xacc-ide 0.0.99-preview2 (now with integrated debugger)

                                    R 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • L leppie

                                      Glad to see you changed the numbers :) I had a real WTF moment reading the email notification ;P xacc-ide 0.0.99-preview2 (now with integrated debugger)

                                      R Offline
                                      R Offline
                                      Richard Stringer
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      I originally posted an obscure method used by one insurance company that I pulled from my lib. Knew it was wrong when I saw the /400 . Richard Suppose you were an idiot... And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself. --Mark Twain

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • R Richard Stringer

                                        This is the norm for auto loans and consumer loans - but not home loans etc.. We have to use it from time to time in certain States when figuring insurance payments. Its pretty simple. Here is a link to the process. Its called the Rule of 78's http://www.obre.state.il.us/CONSUMER/Tips/RULEOF78.HTM [^] Richard Suppose you were an idiot... And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself. --Mark Twain

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                                        J Offline
                                        Jeremy Falcon
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        Cool, thanks for the link. Jeremy Falcon

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • N Nish Nishant

                                          I've seen loan companies advertise loan offers for people where they provide an interest rate. I was just wondering how this interest is calculated. Assume I take a loan for $3000 and the interest rate is 25% and that I am planning to pay it back in 4 months (4 installments). Is it going to be :- (1) 25% of 3000 = 750. Thus amount to be repaid is 3000+750 = 3750. So amount per installment = 3750/4 = $937.5 OR (2) 25% of 3000 = 750 for 1 year. So for 4 months it will be 750/3 = 250 (since 4 months is 1/3rd of 1 year) Thus amt to be repaid is now 3000+250 = 3250. Installment amt per month = 3250/4 = $812.5 Could someone tell me if it's (1) or (2) please? Thanks, Nish

                                          R Offline
                                          R Offline
                                          Rob Catterall
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          I used the following program when comparing mortgages: http://www.definitivesolutions.com/aprcalc.htm Personally, I would save up for 4 months and pay cash, no calculations needed and you might get a discount :)

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