Bullet
Private Credit glossary · Loan Structures & Instruments
Definition
Debt structure where the entire principal is repaid at maturity.
Bullet in plain English
A bullet loan means you pay only interest along the way and then hand back the ENTIRE original amount in one lump at the very end — nothing is chipped away in the middle. Contrast that with a typical home mortgage, where each monthly payment shrinks what you owe; a bullet is like renting money and returning the full sum on the last day. Borrowers like it because their payments stay low until maturity, but it does mean they must have (or refinance) that whole balloon payment ready when the deadline hits.
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