Personal Loan Refinance Calculator
Use a personal loan refinance calculator to see your savings on a refinanced personal loan. Plus, learn how to refinance your loan.
Current loan
- Pay $0.00 more each month
- Spend $0.00 more over the lifetime of the loan
Need a personal loan? See if you pre-qualify
Answer a few questions to get personalized rate estimates in 2 minutes.
This service is free and will not affect your credit score.
When to refinance your personal loan
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The best time to refinance a personal loan is when you’re offered a lower annual percentage rate (APR). A lower rate can save you money by reducing the monthly payment and the total interest.
Use NerdWallet's calculator to see how much a lower rate will save you in monthly payments and overall interest.
How to use this calculator
Enter the remaining balance of your existing loan. The calculator assumes your new loan will be equal to your outstanding balance.
Add your current monthly payment. Enter the amount you currently pay toward your loan each month.
Add your current annual percentage rate. Lenders are required to disclose the annual percentage rate (APR) before you get a loan. The APR is the loan's interest rate plus any upfront origination fee. Your APR may be listed on your monthly loan statements.
Enter the new loan term. The loan term you choose will also affect your payments and interest. A refinanced loan with a longer term will reduce your monthly payment but may cost more in total interest. A shorter term could lower your overall interest costs but increase your monthly payments. Personal loan terms typically range from two to seven years.
Add the new loan’s annual percentage rate. You’ll typically want to refinance only if the new loan’s rate is lower than your current rate. Most personal loan rates range between 7% and 36%.
» MORE: Compare personal loan rates
How to read your results
Review the "difference" column to estimate changes you may see with a refinanced loan. Here are the top factors to consider:
Monthly payment: How much lower or higher your monthly payment will be if you refinance at the rate and term you’ve selected.
Total interest and total payments: How much you’ll save or how much more you’ll spend overall on the refinanced loan. (The amount in the “difference” column should be the same for both the “total interest” and the “total payments” rows.)
Reasons to refinance a personal loan
Here's when to consider refinancing a personal loan:
You've built up your credit score: If you’ve been making on-time payments toward your existing personal loan and other debts over several months or years, your credit score may be in better shape than it was when you originally applied. Credit scores are a major factor in determining personal loan rates. The lowest rates go to those with good or excellent credit (scores in the mid-600s and higher).
Your income is higher or debt is lower: A lender may also offer a better rate if you’ve bumped up your income or paid down debt to lower your debt-to-income ratio. A DTI ratio below 43% is ideal, but several lenders accept higher ratios.
You want smaller monthly payments. Refinancing could lower your monthly payments. But be cautious about choosing a new loan with a longer term. Your payments may be lower, but you could end up paying more interest overall.
You want to shorten your debt payoff timeline: Refinancing a loan to one with a shorter term may increase your monthly payment, but it could save you on total interest and get you out of debt faster.
If your goal is to pay off your personal loan faster, you could make higher monthly payments instead of refinancing. Check with your lender to verify that they don’t charge a prepayment penalty and they allow principal-only payments so the extra money goes toward reducing your balance instead of interest.
Lenders that let you refinance a personal loan
Lenders’ refinancing policies vary. Some will only refinance loans from another lender, while others will refinance their own personal loans.
Here the refinance policies of seven popular lenders:
Lender | Refinances loans | Est. APR |
|---|---|---|
From Best Egg or another lender. | 6.99% - 35.99%. | |
Only from other lenders. | 9.99% - 17.49% | |
From Discover or another lender. | 7.99% - 24.99%. | |
Only from other lenders. | 8.01% - 29.99%. | |
From SoFi or another lender. | 7.74% - 35.49%. | |
From Upgrade or another lender. | 7.74% - 35.99%. | |
From U.S. Bank or another lender. | 8.74% - 24.99%. |
How to refinance a personal loan
Take these steps to refinance a personal loan:
Identify potential lenders. Check if your current lender allows refinancing or if you'll need another lender to refinance your current loan.
Pre-qualify for a new personal loan. Pre-qualify with multiple lenders to see the rates and terms on a new loan. Pre-qualifying only requires a soft credit check, so it doesn’t affect your credit score. Compare new loan offers to your current loan.
Complete a new loan application. Once you've identified the best pre-qualified offer, you can submit a formal loan application. You may be asked to provide documents to verify your details and income. The lender will run a hard credit check at this time, which can cause your credit score to dip a few points.
Pay off existing loan and begin new loan payments. If approved, you’ll pay off your existing loan with the funds from the new loan and close the old account. The new lender will typically expect your first payment 30 days after your loan is issued.
Need a personal loan? See if you pre-qualify
Answer a few questions to get personalized rate estimates in 2 minutes.
This service is free and will not affect your credit score.