Debt Consolidation Calculator
Enter the debts one loan would pay off and the offer you have been quoted. See the change in your monthly payment and the change in what the borrowing costs in total, fee included, as two separate answers — because a longer term usually pushes them in opposite directions.
What you owe now
Must cover at least every minimum. Anything above them is modeled as going to your highest rate first.
The consolidation loan
The rate you have actually been quoted, not an advertised “from” rate.
Deducted from the loan proceeds, so the loan has to be larger than your balances to clear them.
The loan takes $28,379.23 in all, origination fee included, against $25,763.90 if you keep paying $600.00 a month on your current debts.
- Total balance
- $20,200.00
- Blended APR now
- 15.20%
- Loan amount needed
- $21,263.16
- Origination fee
- $1,063.16
- Monthly payment change
- −$127.01
- Minimums today
- $430.00
| Plan | Monthly payment | Time to clear | Total interest | Total paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keep paying as you are | $600.00 | 3 years, 7 months | $5,563.90 | $25,763.90 |
| Consolidation loan | $472.99 | 5 years | $7,116.07 | $28,379.23 |
How the two paths are priced against each other
Your current debts are simulated month by month. Every debt accrues interest at one twelfth of its APR, every minimum is paid, and whatever is left of your stated monthly payment goes to the highest-APR debt — the cheapest realistic version of what you are doing now, so the loan is never flattered by a weak comparison. When a debt clears, its payment rolls into the next target. The same mechanic drives the snowball vs. avalanche calculator.
The loan is priced with the standard level-payment formula. The origination fee is treated as a deduction from the proceeds, which is how most personal loans charge it: to hand your creditors the full balance, you have to borrow more than the balance, and interest is charged on that larger figure.
Amount financed = Total balance ÷ (1 − Fee%); Payment = P·r ÷ (1 − (1+r)⁻ⁿ)- P
- Amount financed, including the fee
- r
- Loan APR ÷ 12
- n
- Loan term in months
- Blended APR
- Σ(balance × APR) ÷ Σ(balance)
If your current monthly payment never clears the debts — the interest charged each month exceeds the payment — there is no total cost for that path. The calculator reports that rather than printing a figure, because a payoff date the arithmetic never reached would be a false statement about money.
$20,200 across three debts against a 60-month loan at 12%
Take a $6,000 store card at 24.99% APR (minimum $120), a $3,200 rewards card at 18.5% (minimum $70), and an $11,000 car loan at 8.9% (minimum $240) — $20,200 in total at a blended 15.20% APR, with $430 of minimums. Paying $600 a month and sending the surplus to the store card first clears everything in 43 months for $5,563.90 of interest, $25,763.90 in all.
The offer: 12% APR over 60 months with a 5% origination fee. The fee means borrowing $21,263.16 to hand over $20,200, so the fee itself is $1,063.16. The payment is $472.99 a month — $127.01 less than the $600 being paid now — and the loan charges $7,116.07 in interest, $28,379.23 in all.
So this offer lowers the payment by $127.01 a month and raises the total cost by $2,615.33 — $1,552.17 of extra interest and the $1,063.16 fee on top. Both are true. The rate did fall, from a blended 15.20% to 12%, but the schedule stretched from 43 months to 60 and the fee was borrowed too. Shortening the term to 36 months at the same rate flips the answer.
What this calculator assumes
- Every APR is fixed for the whole payoff period, on both paths.
- Minimum payments on the current debts are fixed dollar amounts. Real card minimums fall as the balance falls, which would make the current path slower and its interest higher than modeled.
- Your stated monthly payment stays constant and covers at least the sum of the minimums; the surplus goes to the highest APR first.
- The origination fee is deducted from the loan proceeds, so the amount financed is the balance divided by one minus the fee.
- The loan is repaid on schedule with no early payoff, late fees, or prepayment penalties.
- No new charges are added to any account. Money values are rounded to the nearest cent for display.
Understanding the Debt Consolidation Calculator
A debt consolidation loan replaces several balances with one: you borrow enough to clear the cards and loans you have now, then repay a single fixed instalment for a fixed term. The pitch is always the same — one payment, one date, usually a lower rate than a credit card. What the pitch leaves out is that a loan has three moving parts, and only one of them is the rate. The term decides how long interest accrues, and the origination fee decides how much you have to borrow in the first place.
This calculator runs both futures side by side with your own numbers: the debts you hold today at the payment you actually make, against the specific loan you have been offered, fee included. It reports the change in your monthly payment and the change in what the borrowing costs in total, fee and interest together, as separate answers — because a longer term routinely moves those two in opposite directions, and a page that showed only the first would be selling you something.
Who this calculator is for
- Anyone holding a consolidation offerwho wants the total cost of that specific loan, not the total cost of the idea of consolidating.
- People juggling several card balanceswho want to know whether one payment is worth what it costs.
- Borrowers quoted an origination feewho want to see what the fee does to the amount they actually have to borrow.
- Anyone choosing between loan termscomparing a 36-month and an 84-month version of the same offer.
- People whose payment barely moves the balancewho need to know whether their current plan ends at all.
Why it matters
- It separates the two questions consolidation ads deliberately blur — is my payment lower, and is my total lower — and answers both.
- It prices the origination fee the way lenders charge it, as a deduction from the loan proceeds, so the loan amount shown is what you actually have to borrow.
- It shows the balance-weighted APR you are paying now, which is the rate the loan has to beat. A simple average of your rates is almost always misleading, because the largest balance dominates the cost.
- It refuses to invent a comparison when your current payment does not cover the interest, and says so instead.
- It gives you a number to take back to the lender: if the total is higher, a shorter term or a lower fee is what has to change.
How to use this calculator
- List every debt the loan would pay off, with its balance, APR, and required minimum payment.
- Enter what you actually pay across those debts each month. Anything above the minimums is modeled as going to your highest-rate debt first, which is the cheapest realistic version of your current plan.
- Enter the loan's APR, its term in months, and the origination fee percent from the offer you have been quoted.
- Read the headline: it reports total cost, fee and interest together, which is the money question. The monthly payment change sits beside it.
- Try a shorter term. If the total cost was higher, this is the single input most likely to change the answer.
How to read your result
Start with total cost. That figure is every dollar each path takes from you — interest plus the origination fee — and it is the one that decides whether consolidating is cheaper. A lower rate on a longer term often loses here: cutting the APR in half while doubling the term leaves you paying interest for twice as long on a balance that falls more slowly. A large fee can lose it on its own, turning a genuine interest saving into a higher bill. When the calculator says the loan costs more, the amount shown is real money, not a rounding artefact.
Then read the monthly payment change on its own terms. A lower payment is worth something — it is breathing room, and it can be the difference between a plan you keep and one you abandon. It is simply not the same thing as saving money, and the page will not let the two be confused. If the payment falls and the total rises, both figures are true at once and you are choosing between cash flow now and cost later.
- Consolidation does not reduce what you owe. It moves the balance and changes the schedule; only payments reduce the balance.
- The origination fee is deducted from the loan proceeds on most personal loans, so clearing $20,000 of debt with a 5% fee means borrowing about $21,053 — and paying interest on the larger figure.
- The advertised rate is not your rate. Only a quote that survived a credit check belongs in this calculator.
- The cards do not close themselves. Consolidating and then spending on the freed-up limits is the most common way this ends worse than it started.
- Secured consolidation is a different risk. Rolling unsecured card debt into a home equity loan lowers the rate by putting your home behind it.
- A fixed minimum payment is assumed on your current debts. Real card minimums fall as the balance falls, which makes the current path slower and cheaper per month than modeled here.
- Ask for the shortest term whose payment you can genuinely sustain, then check the total again — term does more damage than rate on most offers.
- Compare the loan against simply paying the same amount you would pay on the loan, on the debts you already have. That comparison is free and often wins.
- Get the fee in writing as a percentage and as a dollar amount, and check whether it is deducted from the proceeds or added to the balance.
Frequently asked questions
Does a debt consolidation loan actually save money?
Only if it takes less money from you in total than staying put would. That depends on the rate, the term, and the fee together — a lower rate over a much longer term frequently costs more, and a fee can outweigh the interest a lower rate saves. This calculator reports the total, fee included, as the headline, and the monthly payment change separately.
How is the origination fee handled?
As a deduction from the loan proceeds, which is how most personal loans charge it. To clear $20,000 of balances with a 5% fee you must borrow $20,000 ÷ 0.95, about $21,053, and interest is charged on that larger amount. Borrowing exactly the balance would leave the fee's worth of debt still outstanding.
What is a blended APR and why does it matter?
It is the average of your current rates weighted by balance, so a large balance at a low rate counts more than a small balance at a high one. It is the rate a consolidation loan actually has to beat. A simple average of the rates on your accounts almost always overstates what you are paying.
What happens if my current payment does not cover the interest?
Then your balances grow every month and your current path has no payoff date and no total cost. The calculator says so rather than printing a number: there is nothing to compare the loan against. The loan itself still has a finite answer, and that is shown.
Will consolidating hurt my credit score?
Applying adds a hard inquiry and a new account, which usually dips your score briefly. Paying off revolving balances lowers your credit utilization, which usually helps. The lasting effect depends on whether the freed-up card limits stay unused.
Is consolidation the same as debt settlement?
No. Consolidation is new borrowing that repays the old balances in full. Debt settlement is negotiating to repay less than you owe, which damages your credit and can create taxable forgiven debt. This calculator models consolidation only.
Are my inputs saved or shared?
No. Every calculation runs in your browser; nothing is stored on our servers or sent to analytics. A shareable link only encodes the numbers you choose to share.
Check the alternatives first
A consolidation loan only makes sense once you know what it is being compared against. Start with your baseline payoff cost in the snowball vs. avalanche calculator, see what the same money does as an extra payment on the debts you already have, and check whether a lender will approve you at all with the debt-to-income calculator. If the balances are on credit cards, a 0% balance transfer is often the cheaper version of the same idea.
Sources and review notes
- Federal Trade Commission — How To Get Out of Debt (consolidation, settlement, and management options)
- Financial Consumer Agency of Canada — Paying off debt
Methodology last checked Jul 28, 2026. The payoff simulation and the loan arithmetic are covered by deterministic unit tests, including the case where the current payment never clears the debts. No financial professional review is claimed yet.