The Interest Rate Arbitrage Calculator

This calculator allows you to calculate the net profit you will earn from the balance transfer game, a complement to the article The App-O-Rama Effect: Is there really such thing as a free lunch? You enter the 6 values corresponding to your "loan" as well as your depository account APY and tax bracket. The calculator gives you the Pay-Out, Pay-In, and Maximum Possible Profit from this arbitrage.

(There is a known bug with this calculator using FireFox.  Please use a different browser in order for it to compute properly.)

Interest Rate Arbitrage Calculator
Loan APR percent
Loan Amount dollars
Loan Duration month
Loan Fee dollars
Deposit Account APY percent
Tax Rate Bracket percent
Monthly Minimum Payment For Loan percent
Pay-in amount dollars
Pay-out amount dollars
Maximum Possible Profit dollars


Note: The maximum profit numbers are for reference only. They will differ depending on how soon your bank receives the deposit and starts paying you interest.