### Rate

Basic and Crystal syntax.

##### Overloads

- Rate (nPeriods, payment, presentValue)
- Rate (nPeriods, payment, presentValue, futureValue)
- Rate (nPeriods, payment, presentValue, futureValue, type)
- Rate (nPeriods, payment, presentValue, futureValue, type, guess)

##### Arguments

- nPeriods is a positive Number that specifies the total number of payment periods in the annuity.
- payment is a Number or Currency that specifies payment to be made each period.
- presentValue is a Number or Currency that specifies the present value, or value today, of a series of future payments or receipts.
- futureValue is an optional Number or Currency that specifies the future value or cash balance you want after you've made the final payment. If omitted, 0 is assumed.
- type is an optional Number that specifies when payments are due. Specify 0 if payments are due at the end of the payment period, and 1 if payments are due at the beginning of the period. If omitted, 0 is assumed.
- guess is an optional Number value that is estimated to be returned by Rate. If omitted, guess is 0.1 (10 percent).

##### Returns

Number value

##### Action

Rate returns a Number specifying the interest rate per period for an annuity. The units of the returned value are consistent with the units of nPeriods. For example, if nPeriods is in months, then the rate returned will be a monthly interest rate.

##### Examples

The following examples are applicable to both Basic and Crystal syntax:

An electronics store offers to finance a $1500 television for $70 per month, over 2 years, with no money down. Is this a good deal? A first step to determine this is to figure out what interest rate the store is charging:

`Rate (2 * 12, -70, 1500)`

Returns 0.00927 (rounded to 5 decimals). Notice that nPeriods is 24 months, payment (-70) is negative since you are paying out the monthly payments, and the present value (1500) is positive since at the start of the loan, you effectively received $1500 (the value of the television). The interest rate returned is a monthly interest rate, since nPeriods was in months.

This next expression calculates the interest rate but expressed as a yearly interest rate and as a percent.

`Rate (2 * 12, -70, 1500) * 12 * 100`

Returns 11.1 (rounded to 1 decimal). Thus, the store is charging an effective annual interest rate of 11.1 percent.

##### Comment

- This function is designed to work like the Visual Basic function of the same name.
- There is no direct formula for the Rate function and so Seagate Crystal Reports calculates the value by iteration. The process depends on the initial guess for the rate. If the program reports an error, try changing the value of the guess argument to be closer to what you expect the interest rate should be.

Seagate Software, Inc. http://www.seagatesoftware.com Please send comments to: techpubs@seagatesoftware.com