Which is cheapest: Tala, Home Credit, BillEase, or Cashalo?

On a balance held a month, BillEase's flat 3.49 percent a month is usually cheapest, followed by Home Credit's commonly cited 2.8 to 4.4 percent effective range, then Tala's disclosed 11 to 12 percent effective monthly, then Cashalo's structure, which landed near 15 percent effective monthly in a published worked example.

Why can I not just compare the advertised rates directly?

Because the four lenders use different structures: a flat monthly rate, a daily rate, and a daily rate plus a daily fee. Direct comparison of numbers in different units is meaningless; converting all of them to total repayment over the same principal and term is the only reliable method.

Does Tala really cost 11 to 12 percent a month?

That is Tala's own published disclosure of its effective monthly interest rate, derived from its processing fee plus daily service fee structure, before the 5 percent late fee. Personalized offers vary, and borrowing for fewer days costs less than the monthly equivalent.

Is Cashalo's cost actually higher than Tala's?

In the published worked example, Cashalo's combined daily interest and fee structure landed near 45 percent of the principal over 90 days, which converts to a higher effective monthly cost than Tala's disclosed rate. Both personalize offers, so your own app's numbers can differ; calculate your own total repayment before deciding.

Which one should I pay off first if I owe several of these?

Convert each to the same unit (total repayment over its own term, or effective monthly cost), rank them, and send every extra peso to the top of that list. In most real mixes that puts Cashalo or Tala first, Home Credit second, and BillEase last, but your own app's actual numbers decide the order.

Tala vs Home Credit vs BillEase vs Cashalo: The Full Lender Comparison

The one rule that makes lender comparison work

Lenders in the Philippines price loans in at least three different structures: a flat monthly rate, a daily rate, and a daily rate plus a separate daily fee. Comparing a 3.49 percent monthly rate directly against a 0.43 percent daily fee is meaningless without converting both to the same unit. The only reliable comparison is the total amount you would actually repay, over the same principal and the same term, converted to an effective monthly cost. Do that one conversion and the whole field falls into a clear order.

The four lenders, converted to the same unit

All four price a 20,000 peso loan; here is what each structure produces, converted to an effective monthly cost:

BillEase quotes a flat 3.49 percent a month on its standard plans, on the declining balance. On a 20,000 peso balance held for a month, that is roughly 700 pesos. EasyPace runs 4.16 percent a month for longer terms. The rate is published, consistent, and simple to compare, which makes BillEase the most transparent of the four.

Home Credit prices its cash loan product with a commonly cited effective rate around 2.8 percent a month on some shorter plans, with longer installment plans pricing higher; a worked example on a 20,000 peso loan over 6 months commonly lands around a 15 percent total add-on charge, which converts to roughly a 4.4 percent effective monthly cost over that term. Home Credit's product mix is broad (installments, cash loans, device financing), so the exact structure depends on which product you are offered. Confirm which product applies before comparing.

Tala splits its cost into a one-time processing fee (3.99 to 11.99 percent of the principal) plus a daily service fee (0.21 to 0.43 percent of the principal per day, charged until repayment or 61 days). Terms run 15 to 61 days, limits 1,000 to 25,000 pesos. Tala's own published disclosure states the resulting effective monthly interest rate at 11.00 to 12.00 percent, with a maximum APR of 141.76 percent. On a 20,000 balance held a month, that is roughly 2,200 to 2,400 pesos.

Cashalo combines a daily interest rate and a separate daily service fee, both on the outstanding balance. A published worked example (a 2,000 peso loan over 90 days at roughly 0.2 percent plus 0.3 percent a day) worked out to roughly 45 percent of the principal in combined interest and fees over three months, which converts to roughly a 15 percent effective monthly cost. Regulatory rules cap the combined daily rate at 0.5 percent, which is the legal ceiling for this category, not necessarily what you will be quoted.

(These figures come from each lender's own disclosures and published sources as of the dates checked. All four update pricing periodically, and Tala and Cashalo personalize offers per borrower, so confirm the offer in your own app before deciding.)

The order, cheapest to most expensive

On a balance held for a month, cheapest first:

The gap between cheapest and most expensive is more than four times, on the same principal, over the same month. That spread is the entire reason a payoff order built on real rates, rather than on which bill feels most urgent, saves real money: sending an extra 5,000 pesos to the wrong one of these four costs you several hundred pesos a month in avoidable interest for as long as the balance sits.

BillEase, 3.49 percent a month, roughly 700 pesos on a 20,000 balance.
Home Credit, commonly cited around 2.8 to 4.4 percent effective monthly depending on the product and term, roughly 560 to 880 pesos on the same balance.
Tala, its own disclosed 11 to 12 percent effective monthly, roughly 2,200 to 2,400 pesos on the same balance.
Cashalo, roughly 15 percent effective monthly in the published worked example, roughly 3,000 pesos on the same balance, at the top of this category's legal ceiling.

What this means for your payoff order

If you owe more than one of these four, avalanche order is simple once the rates are in the same unit: extra payment goes to Cashalo or Tala first, Home Credit second, BillEase last (all else equal, and adjusting for whatever your own app actually shows you, since Tala and Cashalo personalize). If you owe only one, the comparison matters for the next time you borrow rather than for payoff priority: all else equal, BillEase's flat, published rate is the most predictable, and its rate does not change based on your repayment behavior the way Tala's and Cashalo's personalized structures do.

The behavioral cost structures, worth naming

Two of the four (Tala, Cashalo) personalize pricing to your repayment history, which means a late payment does not just add a penalty, it can raise the cost of your next loan. The other two (BillEase, Home Credit) price published rates that do not worsen based on behavior. If your income is irregular, that structural difference is worth factoring in before borrowing from any of the four, since the same late month can cost you more than the penalty alone with the personalized lenders.

How BillEase and Home Credit actually differ structurally

Since the two occupy adjacent positions in the ranking, the structural difference is worth spelling out. BillEase prices a flat monthly rate on the declining balance, applies it identically to BNPL and cash products, and publishes it openly. Home Credit prices its product mix with add-on charges that are disclosed at the offer screen but are less uniform across products: a cash loan's effective cost differs from a device installment plan's, and the effective rate depends on the term chosen. The practical difference for a borrower: BillEase's cost is predictable from one number, Home Credit's depends on the product and term you are actually offered, so the honest comparison requires reading the specific offer screen rather than a general rate table. Neither structure is wrong, but they answer "how much does this cost" differently: one with a single number, the other with a number per product per term, which is why the same-lens conversion in this article is the only comparison method that works across all four lenders.

If you owe more than one of these, a worked payoff example

Take a reader with three balances: a 15,000 peso CashaLoan, a 20,000 peso Tala loan, and a 10,000 peso BillEase balance, with 8,000 pesos a month available above minimums. Avalanche order after converting everything to the same unit: the CashaLoan (highest effective monthly cost) gets every extra peso first, Tala second, BillEase last on its normal schedule. The counterintuitive part is that the smallest balance, the BillEase 10,000, is the last one cleared, even though a snowball approach would clear it first for the psychological win. The reason: at these rate gaps, the interest saved by attacking the expensive balances first is several hundred pesos a month, real money, while the quick win of clearing the cheapest balance first saves almost nothing in interest. The honest exception: if the BillEase balance were a 0 percent partner offer inside its grace window, it would jump to the top of the list despite being the smallest and cheapest, because a 0 percent balance converts to the most expensive debt in the plan the moment the grace window closes and the standard rate applies retroactively.

See all your lenders converted to the same unit

Goodbye Debt's free plan does exactly this conversion for you: enter any debt with a balance and its real cost, and see every lender you owe ranked in avalanche order, in the same unit, with your projected debt-free date. No bank linking, manual entry or a CSV, and nothing to pay before you see the full ranked list.