Give your loan the second look: your real payoff date, what it truly costs in interest, and exactly how much an extra payment every month buys back — in dollars and in months.
How to use it: pick your loan type, enter the balance, rate, and term, then try an extra payment — The Math shows exactly what it buys back.
Every extra dollar goes straight to principal.
Principal & interest only — mortgage figures exclude taxes, insurance, and PMI. Assumes fixed rate and no prepayment penalty. Estimates for planning, not a loan offer.
Personal loans usually carry the highest APRs on this site's menu — unsecured money costs more — which makes them the place where extra payments do their loudest work. The same $100 a month that trims a 6% mortgage politely takes a serious bite out of a loan in the teens. Run your real rate through the accelerator above and let the interest-saved line make the argument.
One thing prepaying can't fix: the origination fee. If your lender took 1–8% off the top when the loan funded, that money is spent whether the loan lives two years or five — early payoff stops the interest meter, not the fee you already paid. That's an argument for speed, not against it; it just means the "cost of this loan" line in your head should include the fee either way.
Before you send serious extra money, find the interest method in your contract. Most personal loans are simple interest and treat prepayment exactly the way the calculator above assumes. But some — particularly smaller-dollar loans from storefront and subprime lenders — use precomputed interest or the "Rule of 78s," where the interest is baked in up front and early payoff refunds less than you'd expect. It's legal in some states on shorter loans, it's always in the paperwork, and it's exactly the kind of clause this site exists to make you squint at. If those words appear in your contract, call the lender for an exact payoff figure before deciding how much extra to send.
Order of operations matters too: if you're also carrying credit-card balances at a higher rate than this loan, the cards die first — highest APR wins, every time. And if the loan's rate is painful because of when you took it, compare a consolidation or refinance quote against the accelerator's savings; a lower rate helps every remaining dollar, while extra payments only help the dollars you send.
Estimates are principal and interest only. Check your loan contract for prepayment terms, and tell your lender extra payments go to principal — some default to advancing your due date instead.