The Best Mortgage Calculator

Privacy policy

The short version: the calculator runs in your browser, and the figures you type stay there unless you sign in and save them. Everything below explains where the exceptions are.

The figures you enter

The calculator does its arithmetic in your browser. The prices, cash sources, and monthly limits you enter are not sent anywhere while you are working, and nothing about them reaches us unless you choose to save them under a name, or they fail to load as described below.

The figures on the calculator are remembered in your own browser’s local storage, so closing the tab does not lose them. Clearing your browser data forgets them.

A share link carries your figures in the part of the address after the # sign. Browsers do not transmit that part to the server, so a link you send to someone is read by their browser and not by us.

Versions you keep beside each other are held in your own browser’s local storage. Clearing your browser data removes them, and we see them only if they can no longer be read.

When you sign in

Signing in is optional and the calculator is fully usable without it. It exists so that figures can be kept under a name you own.

We use Google sign-in. Google tells us your account identifier, your email address, and the name on your Google account, and we store those so a save can belong to someone. We never receive your Google password.

Your session is held in a cookie that your browser will not let a script read. It is there so you stay signed in, and it is not used for advertising or measurement.

When you save figures

Saving stores the figures on screen, the name you gave them, and the times the save was created and last changed. They are kept until you ask us to remove them.

A save is reachable by anyone holding its link. That is what makes it shareable, and it is worth knowing before you put a real household’s numbers in one and send it on.

When something you saved will not load

If something you saved can no longer be read, we keep a record so it can be fixed by hand: an exact copy of what was stored, the address of the page you were opening, a description of your browser, and your account if you were signed in. That includes what your browser keeps for the calculator, which is copied to us only when it fails to load. The record is kept until the problem is corrected. Nothing stored on our side is changed because of it, and what your browser keeps changes only if you choose to continue.

When it is something you were opening, you are asked whether you want to hear back before anyone is told. If you leave an email address it is stored with that record so the developer can reply to you personally, and your browser remembers it to fill in the box if the same thing happens again. Choosing not to be emailed sends the report without an address. A problem with your account record itself is reported straight away, since there is nothing for you to choose.

When you write to us

A message sent through the contact form reaches us by email and is also stored so we can answer it. It contains whatever you chose to put in it, so please do not send anything you would not want us holding.

The contact form is checked for automated submissions before it is accepted. That check looks at how the request was made rather than at what you wrote.

Advertising and measurement

We count page views so we can tell how many people use the calculator, and we show advertising to pay for running it. Both use cookies or similar identifiers.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you are asked before any of that is set, and you can change your answer at any time. Refusing costs you nothing: every part of the calculator works identically either way, because it computes in your browser and needs no identifier to do so.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not combine what advertising or measurement reports with the figures you save.

Your choices

You can use the whole calculator without signing in, without saving anything, and without accepting advertising or measurement cookies.

If you have saved figures and want them gone, write to us and we will remove them along with the account they belong to.

Changes to this policy

If we add a service that receives your data, it appears in the list above and the date at the top of this page changes. We do not quietly broaden what we collect.

Who else receives your data

These are every outside service the site depends on, and the narrowest true description of what reaches each one. Each of them has its own policy governing what it does afterwards.