BNPL True Cost Calculator

This calculator turns the fees on a Buy Now Pay Later plan into an effective annual interest rate, so you can see how expensive interest-free credit really is in New Zealand once you express it the way every other loan is measured. BNPL providers proudly charge no interest, but when you pay a fee to borrow money for a few weeks, that fee does the same job as interest, and because the amount is small and the period is short, the equivalent annual rate can be eye-watering. A ten dollar fee on a two hundred dollar purchase paid over six weeks sounds trivial, but as an annual rate it dwarfs a credit card. The maths is simple: the fee as a share of the amount borrowed gives the cost for the repayment period, and scaling that up to a full year gives an effective annual rate you can compare against a card or personal loan. You enter the purchase amount, the total fees you pay on it, and the number of weeks to repay, and the calculator returns the effective annual rate and the total cost. Use it to judge whether a BNPL plan with fees is really cheaper than the alternatives, and to appreciate that a small fee on a short, small loan is rarely as cheap as it looks. Estimate only, not financial advice.

A simple annualised rate (fee share scaled to a year); it shows how a small short-term fee compares with other credit. Estimate only, not advice.