vlookup help

Question

I need help in excel.  I am trying to create a vlookup. I have been trying for 2 days with no luck.

1. Use a VLOOKUP function to determine the interest rates in column D.
2. Calculate the down payment by multiplying the results of a VLOOKUP function by the selling price. Enter the formula in column E.

Customer	Selling Price	Loan Term	Interest Rate	Down Payment	Amount to be Financed	Monthly Payment
Allen	$                 265,354.00	30
Arnold	$                 328,788.00	15
Barber	$                 500,000.00	15
Bollis	$                 112,485.00	30
George	$                 350,000.00	30
Hood	$                 761,978.00	20
Morgan	$                 192,940.00	15
Paul	$                 606,563.00	20
Pinder	$                 319,765.00	30
Loan Term	Interest Rate	% Required for Down Payment
15	0.0575	0.15
20	0.06	0.2
30	0.0625	0.25
Loan Statistics	****	****
	Number of Loans
	Highest Amount Financed
	Lowest Amount Financed
	Total Amount Financed

Answer 1

Column B must be in numeric currency format and not in text format otherwise the formulas will error.

A common error that users make with Vlookup is that the Table Array is not entered in absolute format (with the $ signs)

Formula in cell D2 as follows: (Copy formula down the column)

=VLOOKUP(C2,$A$16:$B$18,2,FALSE)

Formula in E2 as follows: (Copy formula down the column)

=VLOOKUP(C2,$A$16:$C$18,3,FALSE)*B2

The percentage cells can be formatted as percentage using Number Format and they will appear like the following screen capture.