Using Loan Calculator Versus Creating a Loan Account in Money

MORE INFORMATION

The Loan Calculator is a tool you can use to explore the terms of a loan before you actually commit to that loan. Use the loan calculator todetermine the best loan for you by comparing various loan options from different lending institutions.

You can also use the Loan Calculator for calculating the possible interest savings from additional payments or payment in full on an existing loan. In some instances, such as student loans, you might have negotiated the loan, but payments on the loan do not actually come due until after graduation. The Loan Calculator could then be used to give you an idea of what your student loan payments might be in the future.

The Loan Calculator can assist in answering questions such as the following:

• How will a change in the interest rate affect my current loan?
• Which bank offers me the best loan alternative?
• If I put a lump sum payment towards my loan, what will I save in interest?

You can use the Report option in the Loan Calculator to print out an Amortization Schedule of your loan calculations. However, you cannot use the Report feature to compare loans; that is, the Report will only create a payment schedule for one loan calculation at a time. Also, you are not able to copy and paste information from the Loan Calculator to a Loan Account.

In comparison, a Loan Account is essentially designed for keeping track of existing loans and entering payments on those loans. The Loan Account Wizard allows you to set up a brand new loan or to enter a loan on which payments have already been made. The loans you set up in Money can be to track money you've borrowed or to keep track of money you have personally lent out. If you set up a Loan Account for a loan that you don't actually have, this results in false information being saved to your Money file.