HELOC vs Personal Loan Calculator

This calculator prices two independent borrowing structures for the same Amount Needed and adds no simulation loop — both sides are closed-form formulas. The HELOC side assumes interest-only payments through HELOC Draw Period (lines 60-64), then a 20-year amortized repayment afterward (lines 66-73, a fixed 240-month assumption not tied to any input). The personal loan side is a single fully amortizing loan over Personal Loan Term (lines 78-90). HELOC Interest Rate dominates Interest Cost Difference — a 10% nudge moves it by roughly 27%, ahead of Amount Needed (20%) and HELOC Draw Period (about 11%) — because the rate compounds across both the interest-only draw period and the 20-year repayment that follows it, touching a much longer stretch of the borrowed amount than any other single input.

HELOC Interest Rate and HELOC Draw Period never move Personal Loan Total Interest at all, and Personal Loan Rate and Personal Loan Term never move HELOC Total Interest — the two sides are priced entirely independently before Interest Cost Difference subtracts one from the other (line 95). Personal Loan Rate and Personal Loan Term move Personal Loan Total Interest by nearly identical amounts (roughly 22% and 21% respectively) — neither one clearly outweighs the other, because both feed the same amortization formula together rather than acting as separate, independent drivers. This calculator does not model HELOC variable-rate resets, origination fees on either product, or the risk of using home equity as collateral.