
Next, consider how much your vehicle is worth if you’re trading it in. So, if you buy a vehicle with 4.99% financing, then you’re paying roughly 5% of your vehicle’s overall price in added interest every year. The interest rate (typically a number between 0 and 29.99%) is the percentage of your purchase that is added to the cost of your vehicle annually. Speaking of interest, the interest rate is the second most important number to consider when structuring a car loan. Why? Because the more time you spend paying off your loan, the more times you will be charged interest. However, due to the interest you’ll be paying on your loan, you’ll actually end up spending more for your vehicle by the time your payments are over. The longer your loan, the less you’ll pay each month, because you’re spreading out the loan amount over a greater number of months. The factor that will change your monthly payment the most (other than the price of the vehicle) is the loan term. Because, as our auto loan calculator will show you, the price you ultimately end up paying depends on how you structure your deal. The most important number, for you, is the payment. If you’re planning on financing your new vehicle purchase, the overall price of the vehicle isn’t really the number you need to pay attention to. Our car loan calculator can do all the hard work for you. To be totally honest, it’s pretty confusing. But loans come with monthly (or bi-weekly) payments, and it can be hard to figure out how much you’re likely to pay once you factor in things like the loan term, the interest rate, the payment frequency, and the trade-in value. Which means most people need to take out an auto loan in order to buy a car. Even a modestly priced vehicle-let’s say $8,000 to $10,000-is more than most people can afford to pay with cash. But don’t forget to use the car loan calculator when you’re out shopping to double-check that everything’s in line and you’re getting what you want at a monthly payment you can afford.Purchasing a vehicle usually requires a significant financial investment. Go shopping with the auto loan calculatorīy calculating the largest cost of car ownership - the payment - before you shop, you know your price limit and won’t become infatuated with a new-car smell and go way over budget. Is the payment just right? Congratulations! You know the vehicle price you should aim for. Or you could consider buying a more expensive vehicle. This could increase your monthly payment and save you money in interest. Is the payment really low? If you can afford to pay more, look at decreasing your loan term. The third option is to get a better rate by increasing your credit score or getting a cosigner. Be careful with this because the longer the term, the more you pay in interest.

The second option to lower your payment is to increase the loan term. In real life, this means you would look for a less expensive car or pay more of a down payment. You could reduce the amount borrowed in the calculator. Is the payment too high? There are three ways you could lower your payment. It should be equal to the monthly loan term you typed in. This is how many payments you would make over the entire life of the loan. It should match the loan amount you typed in. This is how much money you would borrow in total. This is your estimated monthly payment based on what you typed in the fields we described above. Here’s a table showing the APR you may qualify for based on your credit score.Įstimated auto payment. The actual amount you pay the lender is based on this percentage and how much you borrow. It’s what the lender charges for loaning you the money. We recommend getting a loan less than 84 months long. Most lenders use months instead of years for the term because the number of months is equal to the number of payments. This is how long the loan lasts from the time you sign the paperwork until the final monthly payment. If you have a trade-in, positive equity contributes to your down payment negative equity increases the amount you have to borrow.
#Auto car loan calc plus#
It should be the price of the car, minus any down payment, plus taxes and fees.


We’ll explain the different parts of the calculator below. Adjust one number - how many months you’d like to pay, for example - and the monthly payment changes. The auto loan calculator takes the car price, loan term and loan APR, and uses that to tell you what your monthly payment would be.
