Kredi Teklifleri Nasıl Karşılaştırılır

APR, not interest rate

One caveat: APR assumes you hold the loan to term. If you’ll likely refinance or pay off early, fee-heavy offers with a slightly lower rate look worse than APR implies. For short holding periods, compare total-dollars-paid instead of APR.

The total-cost calculation — what actually matters

Example: $20,000 loan, 5 years.

Term — the biggest hidden variable

Same $20k at 6.5%: 3-year term = $613/mo, $2,063 interest. 5-year = $391/mo, $3,479 interest. 7-year = $294/mo, $4,727 interest. Picking 7-year over 3-year costs you an extra $2,664 — a 129% increase in interest — for the same loan.

Prepayment penalties — always check

Some loans (rare in mortgages, common in subprime auto and some personal loans) charge a penalty if you pay early. A 2% prepayment penalty on $20k is $400 out of your pocket for paying ahead. Read the disclosure — if you see “prepayment penalty,” factor it in or reject the offer.

Origination vs discount points

Make a simple comparison across all offers with four columns only: (1) APR, (2) monthly payment, (3) total cost (payment × months + fees), (4) prepayment penalty yes/no. Everything else is noise. The offer with lowest total cost and no prepayment penalty wins, full stop.

The 4-column comparison table

Pre-qualification is a soft credit inquiry — doesn’t ding your score, lets you see rates from multiple lenders before you formally apply. Most online lenders (SoFi, LightStream, Upstart, Marcus) offer it. Get 3–5 soft-pull quotes, then do the hard-pull application only on your top choice.

Soft-pull pre-qualification first

If you hard-pull multiple lenders, do it within a 14-day window — credit bureaus treat same-category rate-shopping hard pulls as one inquiry for scoring purposes. Spread them over a month and you’ll drop your score 10–20 points for nothing.

Red flags that eliminate an offer immediately

Run the numbers before you sign