Loan Eligibility Checker
Estimate loan eligibility based on income, debts, credit score, and loan type.
このツールについて
Find out how much you may qualify to borrow before you apply. Enter your gross annual income, existing monthly debt obligations, credit score range, and the type of loan you need (home, auto, or personal). The calculator applies standard debt-to-income (DTI) thresholds and credit-score adjustments used by most U.S. lenders to estimate your maximum loan amount and likelihood of approval. A what-if panel shows exactly how much debt you would need to eliminate to qualify for a larger loan.
使い方
- 1 Enter your gross annual income.
- 2 Add up all existing monthly debt minimum payments.
- 3 Choose your credit score range from the slider.
- 4 Select the loan type: home, auto, or personal.
- 5 Optionally enter a desired loan amount to see a specific approval likelihood.
- 6 Review your DTI, estimated maximum loan, and the what-if suggestions.
The one ratio lenders care about most
Before a lender looks at how much you want to borrow, they look at how much of your income is already committed. That figure is your debt-to-income ratio (DTI): total monthly debt payments divided by gross monthly income. If you earn $75,000 a year, your gross monthly income is $6,250; if your existing minimum payments total $500 a month, your current DTI is 500 ÷ 6,250 = 8%. Most lenders set a ceiling — commonly around 43% — above which they won't approve a new loan, because beyond that the borrower has little room to absorb a payment shock. This tool computes your DTI, shows it against the ceiling for your situation, and estimates the largest loan that ceiling allows.
Why the ceiling moves with credit and loan type
The 43% figure is a rule of thumb, not a law. This calculator adjusts the allowed DTI by both your credit-score tier and the kind of loan, because lenders genuinely do. Higher credit buys you a higher ceiling; riskier loan products allow less headroom. The thresholds it uses:
| Credit tier | Home | Auto | Personal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excellent (740–850) | 45% | 50% | 45% |
| Good (670–739) | 43% | 45% | 40% |
| Fair (580–669) | 41% | 40% | 36% |
| Poor (300–579) | 36% | 35% | 30% |
Your DTI ceiling times your gross monthly income gives the most debt service you're allowed to carry. Subtract your existing payments and what's left is your available monthly capacity for a new loan payment — the lever everything else turns on.
From monthly capacity to a loan amount
A monthly payment isn't a loan size; you have to run it backward through an amortisation formula at a representative rate and term. This tool uses standard assumptions per product: a mortgage over 30 years at 6.5%, an auto loan over 60 months at 7%, and a personal loan over 36 months at 12%. It inverts the standard payment formula to find the principal your available monthly capacity can support. For mortgages it also applies an income-multiplier sanity cap (for example, 4.5× annual income at the "good" tier) and takes the smaller of the two, because a lender won't lend purely on payment math if it dwarfs your income.
A worked example
Income $75,000, existing debt $500/month, Good credit, auto loan. Monthly income is $6,250. The auto ceiling at Good is 45%, so the most debt service allowed is 6,250 × 0.45 = $2,812.50. Existing payments are $500, leaving $2,312.50/month of capacity. Run that through a 60-month, 7% amortisation and it supports roughly a $116,000 loan. If you'd entered a desired amount, the tool computes that loan's monthly payment, adds it to your current debt to get a projected DTI, and grades the approval likelihood — Very Likely, Likely, Borderline, or Unlikely — by how close that projected DTI sits to your ceiling.
The what-if panel
This is the part that turns a number into a plan. The tool shows how much more you could borrow if you cut $100 from your monthly debt: that freed-up $100 of capacity, run through the same amortisation, typically unlocks several thousand dollars of additional loan. If you asked for more than you currently qualify for, it solves the problem in reverse — calculating exactly how much monthly debt you'd need to eliminate to bring your projected DTI under the ceiling and reach your desired amount. Paying down a credit card before applying often does more for your eligibility than waiting for a raise.
What this estimate cannot see
- It's not a credit decision. Real underwriting pulls your full credit report, verifies employment and assets, and applies institution-specific overlays. Treat this as a planning estimate only.
- Rates and terms are assumptions. The 6.5% / 7% / 12% figures are representative, not your actual quote. A different rate moves the supported principal substantially.
- Count the right debts. Include minimum payments on credit cards, car loans, student loans, and other mortgages. Exclude utilities, insurance, groceries, and other non-debt bills — folding those in will understate your eligibility.
- Gross, not net. DTI uses pre-tax income. Using take-home pay inflates the ratio and undercounts what you qualify for.
Everything is computed locally in your browser from the numbers you enter; nothing is transmitted, and there's no credit check, so experimenting with scenarios has no effect on your score.