Rate

Basic and Crystal syntax.

Overloads
Arguments
Returns

Number value

Action

Rate returns a Number specifying the interest rate per period for an annuity. The units of the returned value are consistent with the units of nPeriods. For example, if nPeriods is in months, then the rate returned will be a monthly interest rate.

Examples

The following examples are applicable to both Basic and Crystal syntax:

An electronics store offers to finance a $1500 television for $70 per month, over 2 years, with no money down. Is this a good deal? A first step to determine this is to figure out what interest rate the store is charging:

Rate (2 * 12, -70, 1500)

Returns 0.00927 (rounded to 5 decimals). Notice that nPeriods is 24 months, payment (-70) is negative since you are paying out the monthly payments, and the present value (1500) is positive since at the start of the loan, you effectively received $1500 (the value of the television). The interest rate returned is a monthly interest rate, since nPeriods was in months.

This next expression calculates the interest rate but expressed as a yearly interest rate and as a percent.

Rate (2 * 12, -70, 1500) * 12 * 100

Returns 11.1 (rounded to 1 decimal). Thus, the store is charging an effective annual interest rate of 11.1 percent.

Comment


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