Monthly payment comes first because cash flow is unforgiving. A S$100,000 loan repaid over three years will look very different from the same amount spread across five years, even if the rate headline sounds similar. Payroll does not care that a lender says the instalment is "competitive". Supplier deadlines do not soften because the brochure looks polished.
Still, the monthly figure is only the first screen.
Banks in Singapore generally price unsecured SME loans around 7% to 11% EIR a year. Fintech and alternative lenders usually sit higher, around 12% to 18% EIR. That spread matters on a S$100,000 facility because the difference can be worth more than a month of rent for a small office or a chunk of a payroll cycle. DBS, OCBC and UOB remain the benchmark names people compare against, not just because they are large, but because they were ranked the top three safest banks in Asia for 2025.
If you qualify for an EFS - SME Working Capital Loan, that pricing often lands around 7.5% to 9% EIR. Enterprise Singapore's risk share with lenders sits between 50% and 70%, which is part of why those loans can come in more sensibly priced than unsecured non-scheme alternatives. The maximum loan quantum was permanently raised to S$500,000 from 1 April 2024, with a group cap of S$5 million, and the tenure can run up to five years.
Now the part borrowers tend to skip, upfront fees.
A bank charging a 1% to 2% processing fee is reducing your usable cash on day one. Alternative lenders can charge up to 3% or more. On a S$100,000 loan, a 2% fee means you receive S$98,000, yet interest is still charged on the full S$100,000. I have seen people call that a small deduction, which is usually when I start getting suspicious, because S$2,000 is not a rounding error for a business trying to cover stock purchases or next month's salaries.
Your calculator should include every mandatory charge the lender will not waive, processing fees, stamping, annual fees, anything compulsory. If those costs are left out, the result is cosmetic. Ask for the EIR in writing before signing, because that forces the lender to show the true annual borrowing cost after those charges are reflected.
This is where flat rate marketing causes trouble. A flat rate of 5.5% a year is roughly equal to a 10% EIR. On a S$100,000 loan at 6% flat over three years, total interest is S$18,000 even though your principal is falling every month. You are paying interest as if the full S$100,000 stayed outstanding the whole time. That is why a flat rate can look cheaper than it is.
Most SME term loans here use flat rate or amortisation, not compounding like a credit card balance, but that does not make the pricing simple. It just changes where the confusion sits.
The clean way to use a calculator is this. Enter the approved amount, then reduce the disbursed amount by all mandatory upfront fees. Compare monthly instalment, total interest over the full tenure, total fees, and the stated EIR. If one lender shows only a flat rate, convert it or ask them to.
OCBC, for example, cites a 0.6% processing fee on some SME loans and a 2.5% early repayment fee on prepaid outstanding principal. Validus charges 2.5% to 5% processing fees depending on risk and loan size, with a representative monthly repayment around S$2,583.48. Those numbers do not tell you which lender is better on their own. They tell you what to plug into the calculator.
If a loan only works when you ignore fees, total interest, or the real annual rate, it probably does not work. For most Singapore SMEs, the right calculator result is not the lowest monthly instalment. It is the loan whose cash cost still makes sense after the nice-looking headline has been stripped off.