Finance Calculators

Two questions come up again and again when money is involved: what will this cost me each month, and what will this be worth if I leave it alone? The loan calculator answers the first, the compound interest calculator the second, and both show their working rather than producing a number from nowhere.

The loan calculator uses the standard amortising payment formula and reports the monthly payment, the total repaid and how much of that total is interest rather than principal. The compound interest calculator states its convention openly on the page, because two calculators using different conventions can differ by thousands over a long horizon: a nominal annual rate, a compounding frequency you choose, and contributions made at the start or end of each period.

Around those two sit the everyday arithmetic nobody wants to do in their head at the wrong moment: what a percentage change actually was, what a discounted price comes to and whether the second discount is applied before or after the first, what a tip splits to between four people, and what a return on an investment works out at once the holding period is taken into account. There is a currency converter too, and it is the one tool on the site that talks to the network — it says so on the page, and it says which rate it is quoting.

Both are estimates, not advice. They do not model fees, taxes, inflation, insurance or the specific terms of any real product, and a real offer will differ. They are for getting the shape of a decision quickly, before you talk to someone who can give you the exact numbers.