Months to clear a PTPTN loan, and the ujrah it costs.
Time to clear
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Total ujrah
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Total repaid
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The cheapest debt most Malaysians will ever carry
A PTPTN study loan is unusual. Instead of conventional interest it carries an ujrah, a service charge of 1 percent a year on the outstanding balance, which is a fraction of what any bank would charge. That low rate changes the whole repayment calculation. With ordinary debt you race to clear it because interest compounds against you. With PTPTN the maths is gentler, so the real questions become how long a chosen monthly payment will take to clear the loan and how little ujrah you end up paying. This tool answers both from three inputs: your outstanding balance, the annual ujrah rate, and the monthly amount you intend to pay.
It is aimed at graduates deciding what to set up as a salary deduction or a standing instruction, and at anyone considering whether to overpay. The calculator runs a month by month amortisation: each month it adds the ujrah, subtracts your payment, and counts the months until the balance hits zero. Because the rate is so low, even modest payments make steady progress, but the size of the payment still matters more than people expect.
Clearing RM30,000 at RM300 a month
Take a RM30,000 balance at the 1 percent ujrah this tool uses, with a RM300 monthly repayment. The first month's ujrah is only RM25, since 1 percent a year on RM30,000 divided by twelve is RM25, so RM275 of your first payment actually reduces the principal. Carried forward month after month, the loan clears in 105 months, which is 8 years and 9 months, the total ujrah paid is about RM1,337, and the total repaid is roughly RM31,337. That total ujrah, RM1,337 across nearly nine years on a RM30,000 loan, is strikingly small next to any commercial loan.
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Raising the payment shortens the clock sharply.
The trap where the loan never clears
The tool guards against an edge case that catches people who set a payment too low. If your monthly payment is equal to or less than the first month's ujrah, the balance never shrinks and the result reads Never. On a RM30,000 balance at 1 percent that floor is RM25 a month, which is easy to clear, but on a much larger balance or a higher rate the minimum to make any progress rises. Always set a payment comfortably above the monthly ujrah, or you are simply servicing the charge and the principal stands still.
PTPTN repayment questions
Should I rush to clear a 1 percent loan, or invest instead?
This is the real decision. Because the ujrah is so low, money you would use to overpay PTPTN might do more in EPF or another investment that historically returns more than 1 percent a year. Many graduates keep the PTPTN payment steady and direct spare cash elsewhere. The counterweight is the discipline and peace of mind of being debt free, plus any settlement discount on offer, so it is partly a personal call rather than a pure numbers one.
Does this tool include PTPTN settlement discounts?
No. PTPTN announces discounts from time to time for lump sum settlement or consistent scheduled payment, and those can knock a real chunk off the balance, but they come and go and are not modelled here. The 1 percent ujrah and the repayment schedule are what this calculator applies. For the current rate, any active discount, and your exact balance, check directly with PTPTN, since they set and administer the loan, not LHDN or KWSP.