It depends on what you are calculating whether or not it matters, but for
safety alway use negative payments. You have (generally) a starting amount
that you are trying to reduce, and you do that with "payments" which is
actually just decreasing the 16472 by 505.
--
-John
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"John Bundy" wrote:

I get 34 in excel, did you convert your rate correctly?
Rate cell=0.029/12
PMT cell=-505
PV cell=16472

The formula would look like this
=NPER(0.002417,-505,16472)
--
-John
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is helpful.


"Howdego" wrote:

I have figured the nper for a loan on a number of amortization schedules on
the net. However, when I use the npr function in Excel, I get a different
number of periods. Why would this be? For example, in excel for a 2.9/12 %
loan, 16,472 pv , 0 fv and a $505 per month payment, I get 31.4 months of
payments. However, on the internet programs, i get 34 months. Does Excel
figure this differently?