Before you start
US consumer consolidation offers. This comparison uses amounts you obtain from documents; it does not calculate new amortization, predict variable rates or decide whether a loan is suitable.
1. Match the debts and the date
List exactly which current debts the offer would replace and their common starting balance. Exclude unrelated debts and extra cash borrowing from this comparison. Choose one evaluation date that both written schedules cover. Ask for a fresh projection if either offer assumes different funding dates or balances. Comparing the old loans at month 24 with a new loan at month 36 gives no useful like-for-like result.
2. Obtain the four amounts for each side
Record starting debt, initial cash paid, scheduled payments within the window and remaining principal at its end. Initial cash means separately paid setup or closing costs in this comparison, not a financed fee already included in the quoted payments and principal. Ask whether the final date includes that day’s payment. Both sides must use the same convention. Keep the quote reference and assumptions, including fixed or variable rates.
3. Compare cash plus the debt still outstanding
The horizon figure is initial cash + payments within the window + remaining principal. With matched starting debts it shows the combined cash paid and debt left at that date. It is not a payoff quote, a present-value calculation or the loan’s entire lifetime cost. Do not add financed fees twice. If a quote omits remaining principal or assumes an unknown future rate, request a documented scenario instead of inventing the missing value.
4. Read the full term and the cash budget too
Record a whole-term quoted total separately when available, including the stated fee treatment. A common-date comparison can expose slower repayment, while a full schedule explains payments beyond that date. CFPB warns that a lower payment caused by a longer term may increase total cost. Check when essential bills and the new payment fall. For a payment projection, use the existing consolidation comparison and its assumptions; this page does not create a new rate forecast.
Fictional example: check the documents
Fictional documented schedules start with the same $10,000 debt and a 12-month window. Current: $0 initial cash, twelve $500 payments ($6,000), and $5,000 remaining principal. Offer: $300 initial cash, twelve $300 payments ($3,600), and $7,800 remaining principal. Horizon figures are $11,000 and $11,700.
The offer reduces the monthly payment by $200 and payments within the window by $2,400, but adds $300 initial cash and leaves $2,800 more principal. Its horizon figure is $700 higher. These are hypothetical quoted amounts, not an amortization calculation. Whole-term totals remain unprovided, so this example makes no lifetime-cost claim.
Before you finish
- Identical debt set and starting date
- One evaluation date and payment convention
- Both documented payment totals and remaining principals
- Cash-paid fees separated from financed charges
- Whole-term totals and uncertainties kept separate
My preparation notes
All notes are optional. Use labels such as Debt A and Document B. Keep identifying records, account numbers and tax IDs outside this page.
Entries are optional and stay in this page's memory. This worksheet does not send or save them. Use generic account labels and document labels. Do not enter account numbers, Social Security numbers, PINs, access codes, passwords, names or addresses, and do not upload documents. Downloading or printing creates a copy you control.
Ask the lender to explain differences in monthly payment, remaining debt and the full quoted term.
Compare documented projections at one date
Copy confirmed figures for the same debts. Leave unknown money blank; enter 0 only when confirmed.
Use the same debts, opening date and cutoff date. Initial cash is separate from payments within the window. Financed fees already included in balances or payments are not added again. The measure is cash paid plus principal still owed, not a full interest-cost estimate.
Enter actual dates as YYYY-MM-DD. If a date is unknown, leave it blank; do not invent one. Dates are calendar dates, with no time zone or time-of-day comparison. This record does not calculate a legal deadline or schedule reminders.
Amounts are US dollars: use a point and at most two decimal places, without commas or currency symbols. Enter 0 only when confirmed; blank is unknown where allowed. Each amount may be at most $1 billion. Only a calendar’s opening cash may be negative. Rates and dates follow the labels of the particular model.
Questions you may have
Does the lower horizon figure identify the best loan?
No. It omits timing value, collateral consequences, affordability and events outside the window. Use it to ask a precise question about the documents.
Can I enter a calculator’s guessed remaining balance?
Use a documented projection with understood assumptions. Label an estimate as such and obtain a revised scenario for variable rates or missing terms.