Hi Thomas!
I've just checked a few home loan sites in the US and they are all
quoting the Annual Nominal Compounded Monthly. Also checked a few
mortgage calculators for US and they are all using Annual Nominal
Compounded Monthly. I think you'll find that it is a Truth In Lending
Act requirement.
Credit Card companies may quote a daily effective rate in which case
the Truth in Lending legislation requires they quote the Annual
Nominal Compounded daily which would be the daily rate multiplied by
365.
Credit card amortization details are different from home loan ones. I
do have a user defined function that calculates the term of a credit
card loan that requires inputs of the amount of the balance, the loan
rate as Annual Nominal compounded monthly, the minimum percentage
repayment and the minimum repayment amount.
This is a problem of using the very loose term APR. To my mind a
reference to an APR without reference to a frequency of compounding is
meaningless. The general assumption with mortgages though is that it
is monthly compounding and the monthly rate applied is the rate
divided by 12.
How I wish that the general comparator rate was prescribed as the
Annual Effective Rate.
--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
Sydney, Australia
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