Personal loan amortization schedule
Personal loans are short, high-rate amortizing loans — which makes their schedules the most dramatic on this site: at double-digit example rates the interest column starts heavy, and extra payments bite fast. The preset below is an example $15,000 over 48 months at an 11% example rate; personal-loan pricing varies enormously with credit, so definitely replace the example rate with your actual quote.
Because terms are short, the schedule doubles as a payoff plan you can actually finish: even $50 extra a month visibly moves the end date. Open “Extra payments” and watch the interest-saved line.
Preset: example $15,000, 48-month loan — replace with your quoted rate
Payment-by-payment schedule
| # | Date | Payment | Principal | Interest | Extra | Balance |
|---|
Click a year to expand its payments. Exports and print always include every payment.
How it works
- Open this page — the calculator is already set up for "Personal loan amortization schedule". Swap in your own amount, rate and term.
- Read off the payment, the payoff date and total interest. The full payment-by-payment table is right below.
- Add extra payments or switch to biweekly to watch the payoff date move and the interest saved appear.
- Download the schedule as Excel, CSV or PDF — generated on your device; your loan details never leave your browser.
The origination-fee asterisk
Many personal loans deduct an origination fee from the disbursement — you sign for $15,000, receive less, and repay interest on the full amount. The schedule here runs on the signed loan amount at the note rate, matching your payment schedule exactly; just know that the fee makes the loan’s true cost (its APR) higher than the note rate. When comparing offers, compare APRs; when checking your payment math against the lender, use the note rate here. If you’re consolidating cards, include the fee in the break-even arithmetic — a fee plus a slightly lower rate can lose to no fee at a slightly higher one on short terms.
Good to know
- Prepayment penalties are uncommon on mainstream personal loans but do exist at some lenders — scan the agreement for “prepayment” before planning an early payoff.
- For debt consolidation, the schedule’s total-interest line is your comparison number against the cards you’re paying off — not the monthly payment, which almost always looks better than the cards.
- Many lenders offer a small autopay rate discount — if yours does, re-run the schedule with the discounted rate to see the small but real difference.
Frequently asked questions
Why is so much of my early personal-loan payment interest?
Same mechanics as any amortizing loan, amplified by the rate: monthly interest is the annual rate ÷ 12 on the full remaining balance, and at 11% on a young balance that’s a big slice. The consolation is the short term — the crossover to principal-heavy payments arrives within the first year on most personal-loan schedules, versus decades on a mortgage.
Will paying off a personal loan early save the “remaining interest” shown?
On a standard simple-interest personal loan, essentially yes — interest stops when the balance does, and the schedule quantifies what the remaining months would have charged. The exception is any loan with precomputed interest or a prepayment fee, which is exactly what to check the agreement for. The one-time lump-sum field above models a full early payoff: set it to the balance and see the savings directly.
Is a personal loan cheaper than a credit card?
Usually, for carried balances: personal-loan rates generally undercut card APRs, and the fixed schedule forces actual payoff instead of minimum-payment drift. The honest comparison is this schedule’s total interest versus what the card would charge over the same months — and the discipline point that a card paid in full monthly costs nothing, which no personal loan can beat.