Online repayment calculators - how does this make sense?

[adam73021]

I've been doing my figures and looking at alternative means of finance, I've been stumped by some of the online repayment calculators finance companies provide.

Loan amount is for $240k
Loan term is 25 years
Repayments made weekly

Bank of Melbourne: 4.65%
Minimum repayments: $312.33 per week

Loans.com.au: 4.23%
Minimum repayments: $324.37 per week

Am I missing something obvious here? How can the repayments be lower with a high interest rate?

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

If it's on the internet it must be accurate!

My calculator indicates the BOM calculator is accurate to within 50 cents (an acceptable margin of error).

The loans.com.au calculator is incorrect. Plug the same interest rate into the BOM calculator for a more accurate estimate.

 

[Jamie M]

Do you have to refresh or hit enter somewhere on the loans calculator after adjusting the sliders?

Cheers

Jamie

 

[Paul@PFI]

Ask them ?

My Sharp EL735 financial calc indicates loans.com.au $298.95 and exactly agrees for the other.

Online tools like this are often copied (!!) in India etc by a freelancer who was paid very little by a job website where they bid for work. Often engaged by a aussie web developer on the cheap. Change the colours, the font and position and its all new. You may even find that some are booby trapped so if its copied it gives incorrect values. (ASIC did that to their super calculator)

This deliberate booby trapping exists in street maps incl Google Maps - Its visible if you know of the error.

 

[cimbom]

Do you have to select a specific loan product as well? If so, it may be that they have additional fees or charges which are factored into the repayment amount shown

 

[Mick C]

Ask them ?

My Sharp EL735 financial calc indicates

^ haahah....oh Paul you funny one...
Im still using Casio Fx cal from HIGH school! It's the Japaneses made model as well....no wonder it has lasted over >15 years!

 

[NPB]

loans.com calculate their weekly payments as monthly divided by 4 not actually a true weekly figure. Terrible from a marketing perspective.Imagine how many deals they have lost from pita internet price shoppers.