French Mortgage Inputs
Change any value and the amortization schedule recomputes immediately.
Use decimal format. Example: 0.12 means a 12% effective annual rate.
Fill this to switch into payment-driven mode and calculate the EAR dynamically.
Active payment
$2,454.11
Active EAR
12%
Repayment horizon
360 installments at 12/year
Amortization Graph
A prerendered chart preview is shown immediately. The interactive chart hydrates right after load.
Loan amount
$250,000.00
Principal
Total interest
$633,480.10
71.703% of total paid
Total paid
$883,480.10
3.53x principal repaid
Amortization Schedule
Expand each year to view the detailed payment breakdown.
About French Amortization
Key concepts and terminology for understanding how French amortization works.
French amortization — also known as constant payment amortization — is the most common method for repaying mortgages and loans in Europe and Latin America. Unlike the declining payment structure common in the US (where each payment is the same total amount but the split between interest and principal shifts over time), French amortization keeps every payment equal from the first month to the last.
Because each payment is fixed, the borrower always knows exactly what to budget. The trade-off is that early payments go almost entirely toward interest, and the principal shrinks very slowly at first.
Each payment is determined by three numbers: the loan amount, the effective annual rate (EAR), and the number of payments. The EAR is converted into a periodic rate (for monthly payments, the 12th root of 1 + EAR), and then the standard annuity formula applies:
Payment = Loan × r / (1 − (1 + r)−n)
where r is the periodic rate and n is the total number of payments. With each payment, a portion repays interest (balance × periodic rate) and the remainder reduces the principal. As the balance shrinks, the interest portion of each payment shrinks too — which means more of the fixed payment goes toward principal over time.
Quota (or payment): A single installment payment. A 30-year mortgage with monthly payments has 360 quotas.
Effective Annual Rate (EAR): The true yearly cost of borrowing, accounting for compounding within the year. Different from the nominal APR — the EAR is what you actually pay.
Principal: The portion of a payment that reduces the outstanding loan balance.
Interest: The portion of a payment that goes to the lender as the cost of borrowing.
Periodic rate: The EAR expressed per payment period. For monthly payments, this is (1 + EAR)1/12 − 1.
Use this calculator whenever you need to model a loan that follows European or Latin American conventions. It handles both directions:
- Standard mode: Enter loan amount, term, and EAR to compute the monthly payment.
- Payment inversion: Enter a target payment amount to solve for the implied EAR — useful for comparing offers with different payment structures.
The amortization schedule shows every quota in detail, making it easy to understand exactly how much of each payment goes toward interest versus principal at any point in the loan's life.