A personal loan can be a helpful financial tool when someone needs to borrow money to pay for things like home repairs, a wedding, or medical expenses, for example. The principal amount of a loan refers to how much money is borrowed and has to be paid back, aside from interest.
Keep reading for more insight into what the principal of a loan is and how it affects repayment.
Loan Principal Meaning
What is the principal of a loan? When someone takes out a loan, they are borrowing an amount of money, which is called “principal.” The principal on a loan represents the amount of money they borrowed and agreed to pay back. The interest on the loan is what they’ll pay in exchange for borrowing that money.
Does a Personal Loan Have a Principal Amount?
Yes, personal loans do come with a principal amount. Whenever a borrower makes a personal loan payment, the loan’s principal decreases incrementally until it is fully paid off.
Recommended: What Is a Personal Loan?
Loan Principal vs Loan Interest
The loan principal is different from interest. The principal represents the amount of money that was borrowed and must be paid back. The lender will charge interest in exchange for lending the borrower money. Payments made by the borrower are applied to both the principal and interest.
Along with the interest rate, a lender may also disclose the annual percentage rate (APR) charged on the loan, which includes any fees the lender might charge, such as an origination fee, and the interest. As the borrower makes more payments and makes progress paying off their loan principal amount, less of their payments will go towards interest and more will apply to the principal balance. This principal is referred to as amortization.
Recommended: What Is the Average Interest Rate on a Personal Loan?
Loan Principal and Taxes
Personal loans aren’t considered to be a form of income so the amount borrowed is not subject to taxes like investment earnings or wages are. The borrower won’t be required to report a personal loan on their income tax return, no matter who lent the money to them (bank, credit card, peer-to-peer lender, etc.).
Recommended: What Are the Common Uses for Personal Loans?
Loan Principal Repayment Penalties
As tempting as it can be to pay off a loan as quickly as possible to save money on interest payments, some lenders charge borrowers a prepayment penalty if they pay their personal loan off early. Not all charge a prepayment penalty. When shopping for a personal loan, it’s important to inquire about extra fees like this to have a true idea of what borrowing that money may cost.
The borrower’s personal loan agreement will state if they will need to pay a prepayment penalty for paying off their loan early. If a borrower finds that they are subject to a prepayment penalty, it can help to calculate if paying that fee would cost less than continuing to pay interest for the personal loan’s originally planned term.
How Can You Pay Down the Loan Principal Faster?
It’s understandable why some borrowers may want to pay down their loan principal faster than originally planned as it can save the borrower money on interest and lighten their monthly budget. Here are a few ways borrowers can pay down their loan principal faster.
Interest Payments
When a borrower pays down the principal on a loan, they reduce how much interest they need to pay. That means that each month as they make a new payment they reduce their principal and the interest they’ll owe in the future. As previously noted, paying down the principal faster can help the borrower pay less interest. Personal loan lenders allow borrowers to make extra payments or to make a larger monthly payment than planned. When doing this, it’s important that borrowers confirm that their extra payments are going towards the principal balance and not the interest. That way, their extra payments work towards paying down the principal and lowering the amount of interest they owe.
Shorten Loan Term
Refinancing a loan and choosing a shorter loan time can also make it easier to pay down a personal loan faster. Not to mention, if the borrower has a better credit score than when they applied for the original personal loan, they may be able to qualify for a lower interest rate which can make it easier to pay down their debt faster. Having a shorter loan term typically increases the monthly payment amount but can result in paying less interest over the life of the loan and paying off the debt faster.
Cheaper Payments
Refinancing to a new loan with a lower interest rate may reduce monthly loan payments, depending on the term of the new loan. With lower monthly scheduled payments, they may opt to pay extra toward the principal and possibly pay the loan in full before the end of the term.
Other Important Information on the Personal Loan Agreement
A personal loan agreement includes a lot of helpful information about the loan, such as the principal amount and how long the borrower has to pay their debt. The more information the borrower has about the loan, the more strategically they can plan to pay it off. Here’s a closer look at the information typically included in a personal loan agreement.
Loan Amount
An important thing to note on a personal loan agreement is the total amount the borrower is responsible for repaying.
Loan Maturity Date
A personal loan’s maturity date is the day the final loan payment is due.
Loan Interest Rates
The loan’s interest rate and APR should be listed on the personal loan agreement.
Monthly Loan Payments
The monthly loan payment amount will be listed on the personal loan agreement. Knowing how much they need to pay each month can make it easier for the borrower to budget accordingly.
The Takeaway
Understanding how a personal loan works can make it easier to pay one-off. To recap — What is the principal amount of a loan? The principal on a loan is the amount the consumer borrowed and needs to pay back.
Consumers looking for a personal loan may want to consider a SoFi Personal Loan. With competitive interest rates and a wide range of loan amounts available to qualified borrowers, there may be a personal loan option that works for your financial needs.
Learn more about SoFi Personal Loans today
FAQ
What is the principal balance of a loan?
The principal balance of a loan is the amount originally borrowed that the borrower agrees to pay back.
Does the principal of the loan change?
The original loan principal does not change. The principal amount included in each monthly payment will change as the amortization period progresses. On an amortized loan, less principal than interest is paid in each monthly payment at the beginning of the loan and incrementally increases over the life of the loan.
How does loan principal work?
The loan principal represents the amount borrowed. Usually, this is done in monthly payments until the loan principal is fully repaid.
SoFi Loan Products
SoFi loans are originated by SoFi Bank, N.A., NMLS #696891 (Member FDIC), and by SoFi Lending Corp. NMLS #1121636 , a lender licensed by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Financing Law (License # 6054612) and by other states. For additional product-specific legal and licensing information, see SoFi.com/legal.
External Websites: The information and analysis provided through hyperlinks to third-party websites, while believed to be accurate, cannot be guaranteed by SoFi. Links are provided for informational purposes and should not be viewed as an endorsement.
Photo credit: iStock/cagkansayin
SOPL0322006
Source: sofi.com