NPer Function

Returns a Double specifying the number of periods for an annuity based on periodic, fixed payments and a fixed interest rate.

Syntax

NPer ( rate, pmt, pv [, fv ] [, type ] )

The NPer function syntax has these arguments:

Argument	Description
rate	Required. Double specifying interest rate per period. For example, if you get a car loan at an annual percentage rate (APR) of 10 percent and make monthly payments, the rate per period is 0.1/12, or 0.0083.
pmt	Required. Double specifying payment to be made each period. Payments usually contain principal and interest that doesn't change over the life of the annuity.
pv	Required. Double specifying present value, or value today, of a series of future payments or receipts. For example, when you borrow money to buy a car, the loan amount is the present value to the lender of the monthly car payments you will make.
fv	Optional. Variant specifying future value or cash balance you want after you've made the final payment. For example, the future value of a loan is $0 because that's its value after the final payment. However, if you want to save $50,000 over 18 years for your child's education, then $50,000 is the future value. If omitted, 0 is assumed.
type	Optional. Variant specifying when payments are due. Use 0 if payments are due at the end of the payment period, or use 1 if payments are due at the beginning of the period. If omitted, 0 is assumed.

Remarks

An annuity is a series of fixed cash payments made over a period of time. An annuity can be a loan (such as a home mortgage) or an investment (such as a monthly savings plan).

For all arguments, cash paid out (such as deposits to savings) is represented by negative numbers; cash received (such as dividend checks) is represented by positive numbers.

Example

Note: Examples that follow demonstrate the use of this function in a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) module. For more information about working with VBA, select Developer Reference in the drop-down list next to Search and enter one or more terms in the search box.

This example uses the NPer function to return the number of periods during which payments must be made to pay off a loan whose value is contained in PVal. Also provided are the interest percentage rate per period (APR / 12), the payment (Payment), the future value of the loan (FVal), and a number that indicates whether the payment is due at the beginning or end of the payment period (PayType).

Dim FVal, PVal, APR, Payment, PayType, TotPmts
' When payments are made.
Const ENDPERIOD = 0, BEGINPERIOD = 1
FVal = 0    ' Usually 0 for a loan.
PVal = InputBox("How much do you want to borrow?")
APR = InputBox("What is the annual percentage " & _
      "rate of your loan?")
If APR > 1 Then APR = APR / 100 ' Ensure proper form.
Payment = InputBox("How much do you " & _
          "want to pay each month?")
PayType = MsgBox("Do you make payments " & _
          "at the end of month?", vbYesNo)
If PayType = vbNo Then 
    PayType = BEGINPERIOD 
    Else PayType = ENDPERIOD
End If
TotPmts = NPer(APR / 12, -Payment, PVal, FVal, PayType)
If Int(TotPmts) <> TotPmts Then 
    TotPmts = Int(TotPmts) + 1
End If
MsgBox "It will take you " & TotPmts & _
" months to pay off your loan."