How much personal loan can you get on your salary, with existing EMIs
Two limits decide the amount. Worked tables from ₹25,000 to ₹1 lakh take-home, and what an existing EMI or a card balance costs you.
Take home ₹30,000 a month with nothing else to repay, and on the assumptions below you could be looking at about ₹4.5 lakh. Add one ₹8,000 EMI on an existing loan and that falls to about ₹3.1 lakh. That drop is the part of personal loan eligibility with existing EMIs that catches people out: it isn't a small adjustment, and it isn't spread evenly. Here's how the sum works, where your current EMIs start to cost you, and what you can change before you apply.
Two limits, and the lower one wins
A lender works out two numbers and lends up to the smaller.
The first is EMI room. The lender lets all your EMIs together take up a set share of your take-home pay. Bankers call that share FOIR, the fixed obligations to income ratio. Subtract the EMIs you already pay, and what's left is the most a new loan's EMI can be. Turn that EMI back into a loan amount at the lender's rate and tenure, and you have the first limit.
The second is a multiple of your monthly salary. The lender takes your take-home pay, subtracts the EMIs you already pay, and multiplies what's left by a set number. So your existing EMIs lower both limits, not just the first.
On CrediVitt, the estimate for each lender is the largest loan that fits all of that lender's limits at once, so it's always the lower of the two. Each lender sets its own share, multiple and rate, which is why the same person sees different amounts from different lenders.
Every figure in this post uses one set of assumptions, so you can compare like with like:
- EMIs may take up 50% of take-home pay
- the loan is capped at 15 times monthly take-home pay, after existing EMIs
- 12% a year, fixed, over five years
- a credit card balance counts as 5% of the balance each month
They're illustrations, not offers and not any lender's terms. Amounts are rounded down to the nearest ₹10,000.
How much personal loan you can get on your salary
| Monthly take-home | No other EMIs | With ₹8,000 of EMIs already |
|---|---|---|
| ₹25,000 | about ₹3,70,000 | about ₹2,00,000 |
| ₹30,000 | about ₹4,50,000 | about ₹3,10,000 |
| ₹40,000 | about ₹6,00,000 | about ₹4,80,000 |
| ₹50,000 | about ₹7,50,000 | about ₹6,30,000 |
| ₹60,000 | about ₹9,00,000 | about ₹7,80,000 |
| ₹80,000 | about ₹12,00,000 | about ₹10,80,000 |
| ₹1,00,000 | about ₹15,00,000 | about ₹13,80,000 |
Read down the last column. The same ₹8,000 EMI takes nearly half off the loan at ₹25,000, 30% at ₹30,000, 20% at ₹40,000 and 16% at ₹50,000. From ₹40,000 up it takes off the same ₹1.2 lakh each time, which is 15 × ₹8,000, so it matters less as the loan gets bigger. Existing EMIs hurt most on lower salaries, because they eat a bigger share of a smaller room.
In the middle column the salary multiple sets the limit every time. With no other EMIs, the EMI room on these assumptions would support about 22 times salary, so the 15 times cap is what stops you. With ₹8,000 of EMIs, the multiple still decides from ₹40,000 up, but it now works on ₹8,000 less pay. At ₹25,000 and ₹30,000 the EMI room becomes the tighter limit.
Personal loan eligibility with existing EMIs: what each ₹1,000 costs
Every rupee of existing EMI counts, because the lender takes it off your pay before applying the multiple. On these assumptions, each ₹1,000 of existing EMI takes ₹15,000 off what you can borrow while the multiple is the tighter limit. Once your existing EMIs pass about 25% of your take-home pay, the EMI room takes over. That's about ₹7,500 a month on a ₹30,000 salary, and about ₹15,000 on ₹60,000.
That 25% is a result of the four assumptions listed above: 50% for EMIs, 15 times salary, 12% and five years. It isn't a general rule and it isn't any lender's rule. Change any one of those and the point moves.
Past that point, every ₹1,000 of existing EMI takes about ₹45,000 off what you can borrow, three times as much as before. It's a straight line, and it's steep.
Worked through: ₹30,000 take-home, one ₹8,000 EMI
- Half of ₹30,000 is ₹15,000. That's the most all your EMIs can add up to.
- Take off the ₹8,000 you already pay. ₹7,000 is left for the new loan.
- At 12% over five years, each ₹1 lakh borrowed costs ₹2,224 a month. ₹7,000 a month supports about ₹3.15 lakh.
- The salary cap works on what's left of your pay after the EMI: 15 × (₹30,000 − ₹8,000) = ₹3.3 lakh.
- The lower of the two is about ₹3.15 lakh, shown in the table rounded down to ₹3,10,000.
Credit cards count, even with no EMI
A card balance has no fixed EMI, but lenders still count it. They treat a percentage of what you owe as if it were a monthly payment, and the percentage is the lender's choice. At 5%, a card with ₹1,00,000 outstanding counts as ₹5,000 a month.
What that does depends on where you start:
| ₹60,000 take-home | Before the card | With a ₹1,00,000 card balance |
|---|---|---|
| No other EMIs | about ₹9,00,000 | about ₹8,20,000 |
| ₹8,000 of EMIs already | about ₹7,80,000 | about ₹7,00,000 |
In both rows the card costs about ₹75,000 of loan, which is 15 × ₹5,000: the lender takes the ₹5,000 off your pay before applying the multiple, and the multiple is still the tighter limit (the table rounds amounts down). With more EMIs already, the card could push you past the point where the EMI room decides, and then it costs about three times as much. If you can pay a card balance down before you apply, do that first.
Tenure: a bigger loan now, more interest overall
A longer tenure means a smaller EMI per lakh, so the same EMI room supports more. Here's ₹14,000 of room, the position of someone on ₹60,000 who already pays ₹16,000 in EMIs. Their multiple allows 15 × ₹44,000 = ₹6.6 lakh, more than any row below, so the EMI room sets the limit:
| Tenure | EMI for each ₹1 lakh | Loan ₹14,000 a month supports |
|---|---|---|
| 3 years | ₹3,321 | about ₹4,20,000 |
| 4 years | ₹2,633 | about ₹5,30,000 |
| 5 years | ₹2,224 | about ₹6,20,000 |
Where the multiple is the tighter limit, a longer tenure doesn't raise the amount at all. And the price is interest. ₹8 lakh at 12% costs about ₹1.57 lakh in interest over three years and about ₹2.68 lakh over five. Stretch the tenure only as far as you need to reach the amount you actually need, not to the largest number on offer.
What moves your number from here
The rate you're offered. Take the same ₹60,000 of take-home pay with ₹16,000 already going on EMIs, which leaves ₹14,000 of room. Over five years that supports about ₹6.4 lakh at 11%, ₹6.2 lakh at 12% and ₹6 lakh at 14%. A better rate is worth more than it looks.
Where you work. Lenders grade employers, and the grade can change the share of salary allowed for EMIs, the multiple and the rate. We explain how in company category for personal loans.
The salary you enter. Use take-home pay, the amount credited to your account each month, not your CTC. That's the figure CrediVitt asks for, and entering CTC only produces an estimate the lender won't match.
A co-applicant who earns. Their income is added to yours, which raises both limits. They share responsibility for the loan, so it's a real commitment for them.
One thing that doesn't work: leaving an EMI or a card off your application. The lender sees your existing loans when it checks your record, and works out its offer on those, not on what you typed.
Run it with your own numbers
Your lender's share, multiple and rate will differ from the round figures here. To test a different amount, rate or tenure, use the personal loan EMI calculator. To see what each lender is likely to offer on its own rules, with your employer and your existing EMIs counted, check your eligibility with CrediVitt. It doesn't affect your credit score.
CrediVitt is not a lender. Loans are provided by RBI-regulated banks and NBFCs, at their sole discretion. All figures in this article are illustrations based on the assumptions stated above.