Free loan tools
Loan cost calculator
Enter the loan the way the lender described it. The calculator shows what you will pay each time, what you will pay in total, and what that works out to per year once fees are counted.
Each month
TZS 266,667
Total you pay back
TZS 1,600,000
Interest + fees
TZS 630,000
Cash you actually receive
TZS 970,000
Interest rate per month
10.00%
Effective annual rate (with fees)
524%
The same loan charged on a reducing balance would cost TZS 377,644 in interest instead of TZS 600,000 — a difference of TZS 222,356.
| Payment | You pay | Principal | Interest | Still owed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TZS 266,667 | TZS 166,667 | TZS 100,000 | TZS 833,333 |
| 2 | TZS 266,667 | TZS 166,667 | TZS 100,000 | TZS 666,667 |
| 3 | TZS 266,667 | TZS 166,667 | TZS 100,000 | TZS 500,000 |
| 4 | TZS 266,667 | TZS 166,667 | TZS 100,000 | TZS 333,333 |
| 5 | TZS 266,667 | TZS 166,667 | TZS 100,000 | TZS 166,667 |
| 6 | TZS 266,667 | TZS 166,667 | TZS 100,000 | TZS 0 |
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.
Reading the result
The dark box is the figure the lender will talk about: what you pay each month. The two next to it are the ones they are less likely to volunteer — what you pay back altogether, and how much of that is the price of borrowing rather than the money itself. In the example that loads with this page, a lender quoting 10% a month flat on TZS 1,000,000 for six months, with TZS 30,000 of fees at the start, takes TZS 1,600,000 back from you and hands you TZS 970,000. The cost of the loan is TZS 630,000.
Flat against reducing balance
With a flat rate the lender works the interest out once, on the whole amount, for every month of the loan. By the last payment you owe a sliver of the original amount, but you are still paying interest as if you owed all of it. With a reducing balance, each month's interest is charged only on what is still outstanding, so it falls as you repay. Switch the "How interest is charged" box and watch the interest column in the schedule: flat, it never moves; reducing, it shrinks every row.
That is why the headline rate alone tells you so little. Ten percent a month flat and ten percent a month reducing are very different prices. If a lender will not say which method they use, ask for the repayment schedule in writing; the interest column will tell you.
What the effective annual rate adds
The effective annual rate puts every loan on the same footing. It counts the fees, it counts the fact that you receive less than you borrowed when fees are deducted, and it counts how often you pay, then expresses the result as one rate per year, compounded. It will usually look shockingly high next to the monthly figure you were quoted. That is not a mistake: it is the real price of the money, and it is the fairest single number for comparing a weekly group loan with a monthly salary loan or a one-off mobile loan.
Where the numbers can still be wrong
A calculator only knows what you type. Late-payment penalties, a compulsory savings deposit held by the lender, insurance charged every month, or a fee you pay in cash that nobody writes down will all make a real loan dearer than this page shows. Under the 2019 microfinance regulations a licensed lender must set out the interest, every fee, the method of calculating interest and the full schedule in the loan agreement — compare what the agreement says with what you see here, line by line.
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Written and checked by the Kopesha team · Last reviewed 29 September 2026 · How we check our numbers