Free loan tools

Free loan calculators

Three tools for checking a loan before you sign, built around the way lenders in Tanzania actually quote their prices: a rate per month, often flat, with fees taken off before you see the money.

Loan cost calculator

Type in the amount, the rate the lender quoted and the term. See the installment, every shilling of interest and fees, a full repayment schedule, and what the same loan would cost on a reducing balance.

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How much can I afford to borrow?

Start from what you earn and what you must spend, not from what a lender offers. Get an installment you can keep paying in a bad month, and the loan size that fits it.

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Compare loan offers

Put two or three real offers side by side — cash you actually receive, installment and number of payments — and see which one costs less in total and per year.

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Why these three

Most of the questions people bring to a lender come down to three numbers: how much will I pay back in total, how much can I manage each month, and is this offer better than the other one. Lenders rarely put those three numbers on one page. The installment is easy to find; the total, and what the loan costs per year once the fees are counted, usually are not.

That gap matters more in Tanzania than it would elsewhere, because two habits are common here. Interest is often quoted per month rather than per year, which makes a high price sound small — 10% a month is 120% a year before anything else is added. And interest is often charged flat, on the full amount you borrowed for the whole term, even though you are paying the loan down every month. A flat rate and a reducing-balance rate with the same number in front of them are not the same price, and the difference is not small.

The tools do the arithmetic for you and show their working: every installment, how it splits between principal and interest, and what is left owing after each payment. If a lender's figures do not match what the calculator shows, that is a question worth asking them before you sign — the regulations require licensed lenders to put the total cost and the full schedule in writing, so you are entitled to an answer.

What they do not do

They do not tell you whether a lender will approve you, and they do not know about charges a lender has not told you about. Penalties for late payment, insurance, and "processing" or "registration" fees paid in cash all change the real cost; add every fee you are quoted, and ask for the ones you are not. A calculator is only as honest as the numbers in it.

Check it a second way

The Bank of Tanzania runs its own loan calculator. If a large decision rests on the answer, put the same figures into both and compare the installment and the total. If they differ, check that both use the same rate period (a month or a year), the same way of charging interest (flat or on a reducing balance) and the same fees.

Everything is worked out on your own phone or computer. Nothing you type here is saved or sent to Kopesha or to any lender. Kopesha does not lend money; these tools are for checking offers from lenders, not an offer of credit.