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Comment by BukhariH | Hacker News Reader

I really love what Stripe are doing here - whilst yes the the APR can be quite considerably higher. That's fair since Stripe are taking on quite a fair bit of additional risk.

As the borrower this loan is significantly de-risked since there aren't any dreaded monthly payments you must make.

Here's my attempt at a quick interest calculator for Stripe Capitals loans: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RH9PpJ9kdB7X4xcZvqb7...

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I created a version with sliders, making it easier to experiment:

https://connect.calcapp.net/?app=atzggn

Also, you don't have to duplicate the spreadsheet to make it editable, you can just use it straight away.

(Disclaimer: I created it with Calcapp, which is a SaaS product I built.)

Perhaps add a <noscript> tag to your calculator - otherwise it is just a blank page with JavaScript disabled!

There is actually a <noscript> element, but it isn't showing because the CSS opacity of the <body> element is set to 0. That's a fairly recent change which inadvertently broke the <noscript> text. We'll need to look into what we can do to fix it.

That’s a super neat app for excel a junky - bookmarked!

Glad you like it. If you or anyone else need a calculator to share on Hacker News, let me know and I'll make sure it can be launched an unlimited number of times for free. (Otherwise, you'll quickly bump into the limits of our free plan.)

Cool experiment.

I don't agree with how you say that 10% is the Quoted Interest Rate, because Stripe isn't doing that. They are saying they have a fixed fee. "Interest rate" means it compounds.

If the HN hive mind can agree on better terminology, I'd be happy to update the calculator.

I would say something like "Loan fee as a percent of amount lent" or (if you wanted to keep it consistent) "Fixed fee as a percent of Principal"

You didn't include the fee in the payback, and you are confusing monthly with annual interest rates

Is the fee not charged upfront - that's why I excluded it from the payback period.

Ahh you caught the mistake with the interest periods! Thanks!

>Is the fee not charged upfront

How does that make any sense?

It's pretty common to have a fee for a loan that's paid upfront like an arrangement fee.

But you're probably right in this case - Stripe likely include their fee in the monthly payments - updated the sheet.

Appreciate the feedback!

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