Personal Loan Borrowing Power Calculator
Estimate the personal loan amount your repayment budget supports, including ongoing fees and financed setup costs.
Your repayment budget
Use your own budget assumption. Results update as you type.
Your borrowing estimate
Example inputsCorrect the fields marked with errors. Your borrowing estimate is unavailable.
- $22,819
- Includes financed setup costs. This is a budget estimate, not lender approval.
- $22,620
- $199
- $495.00
- $5.00
The loan repayment and fee together use your selected repayment budget.
Available amount under other assumptions
Each alternative changes one assumption. Amounts exclude the same financed setup costs. Zero means the budget cannot cover those costs.
Solving for the Loan Amount
This personal loan borrowing power calculator works backwards from a repayment budget to an indicative loan amount. Enter the budget you assume is affordable, the repayment frequency and the loan's annual interest rate.
Subtract ongoing fees from the budget before calculating the loan payment. The present-value formula converts that payment into a financed balance. Deduct financed setup costs from the balance to find the amount available for your purchase or other purpose.
The formula is balance = payment × (1 − (1 + r)−n) ÷ r. Here, r is the annual interest rate as a decimal divided by payments per year. The total payment count is n. At 0% interest, balance equals payment multiplied by n.
For a hypothetical $500 monthly budget, a $5 monthly fee leaves $495 for principal and interest. At 10.9% over five years, that supports a maximum principal of $22,819. Financing $199 in setup costs leaves $22,620 available.
| Budget or loan amount | Amount |
|---|---|
| Monthly repayment budget | $500.00 |
| Monthly ongoing fee | $5.00 |
| Monthly principal and interest payment | $495.00 |
| Indicative maximum principal | $22,819 |
| Financed setup costs | $199 |
| Available after setup costs | $22,620 |
These are illustrative assumptions, not quoted loan terms. Enter the interest rate excluding fees. Moneysmart's personal loan guide explains that a comparison rate includes interest and most fees. Using it here would count some costs twice.
A fee that uses the whole budget leaves nothing to repay principal and interest, so the calculator rejects it. Financed setup costs must also leave a positive amount available.
The Effect of Rate and Term
A higher interest rate reduces the amount a fixed repayment budget supports. A longer term increases that amount by spreading repayments over more periods. It also extends the time you pay interest and ongoing fees.
The comparison chart changes one assumption at a time. With the starting $500 monthly budget, increasing only the rate from 10.9% to 12.9% reduces the available amount from $22,620 to $21,605.
Keep the rate at 10.9% and shorten only the term from five years to four. The amount available falls to $18,989. Both examples retain the $5 monthly fee and $199 financed setup costs.
Weekly and fortnightly budgets use 52 and 26 payments a year, respectively. The tool divides the annual rate by that count and spreads monthly fees across those periods. It does not simply divide a monthly loan amount.
You can also use this as a car loan affordability calculator when the loan is fully repaid through regular payments. Allow separately for a deposit, trade-in and vehicle running costs. A balloon payment requires a different model.
Use the personal loan calculator when you already know the amount and want its repayment schedule and total borrowing cost.
Budget Capacity is Not Approval
The result shows what your assumed budget can repay under the entered terms. It does not establish that the budget is affordable or that a lender will approve that principal.
A lender's decision still depends on verified income, living expenses, existing debts and its lending policy. The offered rate and product limits can also change the amount available.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission's responsible lending guidance describes enquiries into a consumer's finances and objectives, verification and suitability assessment. A repayment-budget calculation does not perform those steps.
Keep a reserve for irregular expenses when setting the budget. For a car purchase, include insurance, registration and maintenance in living costs before deciding how much remains for repayments.