Effective Interest Rate
The term effective interest rate is the actual return from a savings account or any investment where you pay interest when considering the effects of compounding costs over time. Through an effective interest rate, you can fully and correctly determine the real percentage rate that you own on a loan’s interest, a credit card, or any other debt type.
An effective interest rate is also referred to as an effective annual interest rate, the annual equivalent rate, or the effective rate.
The Effective Interest Rate Formula:
With:
i = Nominal Interest Rate
n = Number of periods
What does the Effective Interest Rate Mean?
When you look at loans, the way through which they are advertised will give you two types of information. Firstly, we’ll have the nominal interest rate, which doesn’t consider the effects compounding interest or fees have on the financial product. Secondly, and the one we focus on now, the effective interest rate, which gives you the real return paid on savings of the actual cost of a loan because it does take into account the effect fees and compounding interest have on the financial product.
For that exact reason, knowing and understanding what the effective interest rate means is important. Through a proper understanding of the effective interest rate, you can compare offers more accurately to make an informed decision based on the result.
How to Find the Effective Interest Rate?
To adequately explain how to find the effective interest rate from any financial product’s promotional information, we will look at two examples. Firstly, we’ll have Loan A that has a 5% interest rate that’s compounded monthly. Secondly, we’ll have Loan B with a 5.1% interest rate that’s compounded bi-annually.
Both of these loans are advertised with their nominal interest rate. Remember, this is the one that doesn’t take into account the effects fees and compounding interest has on the loan. To calculate the effective interest rate, we’ll use the formula shown above.
While the nominal interest rate for Loan A is smaller than that of Loan B’s, the effective interest rate from Loan B is lower than that of Loan A’s. This occurs because Loan B has fewer compounding times over the course of a year.
Popular Real Estate Terms
People often use the term in their everyday discourse, yet many wonder what the meaning of common law genuinely implies. Common law refers to a system of jurisprudence based on court ...
A line on a map or drawing showing equal ground elevation points. See also contour map. ...
Relationship between individuals or entities out of which exists a mutual interest. An example is a privity of contract among the contracting parties concerning the actions each are to take. ...
Federal agency that aids veterans of the armed forces. For example, it guarantees a home loan for up to a predetermined dollar amount or percentage of the loan balance, whichever is less. ...
Goods that are freely substitutable. It is goods of a given class or type, any unit of which is as acceptable as another, and capable of satisfying an obligation expressed in terms of the ...
Mutually binding property sales contract where the title remains with the seller until the purchase price is paid by the buyer. It is a contract to convey title in the future upon ...
Time period for which one expects to keep property such as a real estate investment. ...
Method of construction where part of the structure is supported by a cantilever beam or truss. ...
Accelerated depreciation method in which the amounts recognized in the early years of the property's useful life are greater than those recognized in the later years. The SYD is found by ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.