Personal loan calculator Qatar: EMI, interest and real rate

What QCB's rules for loans against salary say

• Highest rate: the QCB lending rate + 1.5% a year on the reducing balance — 6.10% with today's lending rate of 4.60% (our sum; QCB publishes the formula, not the figure). The loan rate follows the QCB rate both ways — down when QCB cuts it, and the bank may raise it when QCB raises it — while the bank's margin may not grow.
• Most you can borrow (principal and interest together): QAR 2,000,000 for Qatari citizens, QAR 400,000 for non-Qatari residents — up to QAR 1,000,000 for a resident only if the excess is covered by a government employee's post-retirement (end-of-service) benefits held by the bank, with a letter from the employer.
• Longest term: 6 years for Qatari citizens, 4 years for residents.
• Share of your salary: all monthly debt payments at most 75% of basic salary + social allowance (Qatari citizens) or 50% of total salary (residents). Loans, cards, overdrafts and standing orders such as rent all count.
• Fees: no fees or commissions besides the interest. QCB's older 2010 fee table still lists up to 1% admin; no official page says which one wins, so the calculator lets you enter what your offer shows.
• Salary transfer: a loan against salary needs your salary paid into the lending bank (or a lien on cash deposits).
• Adverts must give the yearly rate on the daily balance, not above the cap, and say that it can change.

Moving or rescheduling a loan

A loan may move to another bank only if the new bank takes over everything you owe the old bank, cards included, the old bank gives a full statement and a salary no-objection letter, and the new loan stays within the QCB limits. QCB's rescheduling rule (written for loans outstanding when it was issued in 2011) lets a loan paid on time be rescheduled to lower the instalment, but not to raise the amount, extend the term or grant a new loan; today the bank decides. Paying off early: early settlement calculator.

Islamic finance

Islamic personal finance (for example murabaha) falls under the same QCB limits; the bank's charge is called a return or profit instead of interest. The maths is the same.