What are nominal interest rates?

A nominal interest rate is the basic price you pay to borrow money, like how much more you have to give back for every dollar you take from someone else.

Imagine you have a piggy bank, and your friend lends you $10 to buy ice cream. At the end of the week, you give them back $11. The extra dollar is like interest, it’s the cost of borrowing that money. Now, if your friend says, “I’m charging you 10% interest,” that number, 10%, is the nominal interest rate.

How It Works in Real Life

If you borrow $100 from a bank and they say the nominal interest rate is 5%, that means after one year, you’ll have to pay back $105. The extra $5 is like a little thank-you note from the bank for letting them use your money.

Think of it like a lemonade stand, if you borrow lemons to make more lemonade, you might have to give some extra lemons back as payment. That’s how nominal interest rates work in the grown-up world! A nominal interest rate is the basic price you pay to borrow money, like how much more you have to give back for every dollar you take from someone else.

Imagine you have a piggy bank, and your friend lends you $10 to buy ice cream. At the end of the week, you give them back $11. The extra dollar is like interest, it’s the cost of borrowing that money. Now, if your friend says, “I’m charging you 10% interest,” that number, 10%, is the nominal interest rate.

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Examples

  1. A bank offers a loan with a nominal interest rate of 5%, meaning you pay back more than the amount you borrowed.
  2. If you save money in a savings account, the bank might give you a nominal interest rate to reward your deposit.
  3. The government uses nominal interest rates to decide how much people will borrow for mortgages or cars.

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Categories: Science · interest rates· finance· money