CalcOak

Loan Amortization Schedule: see every payment, the interest it carries and when the loan is gone

How to use this schedule

Enter the amount you are borrowing, the annual interest rate and the term, either in years or in months for shorter car and personal loans. Choose how often you pay and the date of the first instalment; the tool then lists every payment in order, with its date, how much of it is interest, how much reduces the balance and what you still owe afterwards. The cards above the table give the headline numbers: the regular payment, the total interest over the life of the loan, the total you will hand over and the date of the final payment.

To test overpaying, put an amount in the extra payment box. The schedule is recalculated with that sum applied to the balance every period, and two more cards appear showing the interest saved and how many payments you skip compared with paying the minimum. Long loans produce long tables, so weekly and bi-weekly schedules open in the by-year view, which totals each calendar year on one line; switch to "every payment" when you want the full detail. "Download CSV" saves whichever view is showing as a spreadsheet file and "Copy table" puts it on the clipboard ready to paste into Excel, Numbers or Sheets.

Why a full schedule beats a single payment figure

A quote of "$1,580 a month" hides where the money goes. On a $250,000 mortgage at 6.5%, roughly $1,354 of the first payment is interest and only $226 touches the balance; it takes about 19 years before the split reaches half and half. Seeing that curve laid out makes decisions such as whether to refinance, pay a lump sum from a bonus, or choose a 20-year term instead of 30 far easier to judge, because you can see the balance you would be left with at any date rather than an abstract percentage.

The table is also useful after you have signed. Lenders' statements usually show a single year, and checking their figures against your own schedule catches misapplied overpayments or a rate change that was never announced. Everything is calculated in your browser from the numbers you type, nothing is uploaded, and the CSV export means you can keep the schedule alongside your own records or build a budget around it.

Frequently asked questions

How is the payment on an amortizing loan worked out?+

The standard formula is payment = P × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)^−n), where P is the amount borrowed, r is the interest rate per period (the annual rate divided by the number of payments a year) and n is the total number of payments. For a $250,000 loan at 6.5% over 30 years paid monthly that gives $1,580.17. If the rate is 0%, the payment is simply the amount divided by the number of periods.

Why does so much of the early payment go to interest?+

Interest for each period is charged on the balance still owed, and at the start you owe the whole loan. On the example above the first payment carries $1,354.17 of interest and only $225.99 of principal. As the balance falls, the interest portion shrinks and the principal portion grows, which is why the last few payments are almost all principal.

How much does an extra payment actually save?+

Every extra dollar goes straight to the balance, so it stops accruing interest for the rest of the loan. Adding $200 a month to that $250,000 mortgage clears it about eight years early and saves roughly $97,600 of interest. The summary cards show the exact saving for your figures by running the schedule twice, with and without the extra amount.

What is the difference between bi-weekly and monthly payments?+

Bi-weekly means 26 payments a year rather than 12, each roughly half a monthly payment. Because 26 half-payments equal 13 full monthly payments, a true bi-weekly plan pays a little more per year and shortens the loan. This tool calculates a genuine bi-weekly amortization from the per-period rate, so the payment shown is what would fully repay the loan over the chosen term at that frequency.

Will the figures match my lender exactly?+

They should be within a few cents. Lenders differ in how they round, whether they count actual days in a month, and how fees or escrow are folded in. This schedule uses the common method of rounding each period to the cent and letting the final payment absorb any leftover so the balance closes at exactly zero.

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