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
A two-story house characterized by a balcony spanning the width of the second story. Monterey architecture was adopted from the early California Spanish period. ...
A loan used for acquiring land. Loans used to purchase unimproved land have more risk than a mortgage to purchase improved property, thus, land loans traditionally have a somewhat higher ...
A lease granted for the right to explore for and recover oil and gas on a specific parcel of property. The terms of an oil and gas lease specify the length of time of the contract, the ...
In order to define the rate of return on investment, or more commonly known as ROI we are also going to explain how it can be calculated and what to look for in the return rate. Investing ...
Economic or physical life of a fixed asset. The property is depreciated over the period benefited. ...
(1) Right to engage in and earn from a particular activity in return for services or for a particular use. (2) Reduced price used as an incentive. (3) Permission or right, granted by a ...
The value of property subject to tax. The tax equals the tax rate multiplied by the property's value. ...
A land property estate contingent upon the occurrence or lack of occurrence of a particular event whereupon it can be created, augmented, or dismantled. ...
In-ground watering system generally controlled by a digital timer that waters the grass and shrubbery of a property. ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.