The calculator shows you how much interest you can earn on a fixed or term deposit at a bank and the final value of your deposit. It will depend on two factors: the annual interest rate e.g. 10% p.a. and the number of 'periods' (times per year) that the capital plus interest is 'compounded'. This varies between banks.

Once per year is known as 'simple interest'. e.g. $10,000 at 10% p.a. would earn $1,000 interest, total $11,000.

Most banks pay 'compound interest', either half-yearly (2 periods or bi-annually) quarterly (4 times) monthly (12 times) or even daily (365 times per year). The value of the deposit increases each period; therefore the greater the number of periods, the more interest is earned over the year. The difference can be significant, especially on larger deposits such as $1 million.

In the same example, monthly compounding means that 1/12 of 10% is added to the deposit each month and the $10,000 would increase to $.

You can use the calculator to show you the amount of interest that your deposit will earn for different compounding periods.

Enter numbers without commas or currency symbol. You can ignore the taxation or inflation factors by leaving the fields at 0 (zero).

Have your calculations worked out and written down and compare them with what the bank offers you. They should be reasonably close.