Before you even think about buying a car, you need to think about how you are going to finance this expensive purchase. Most people are not lucky enough to be able to buy their cars outright, thus take out car financing either through the dealership, a bank, a credit union, a building society, or a specialist e-lender. When you work out what you can afford to pay each month, you will know what kind of car you are able to buy. An auto loan interest calculator takes the hard work out of figuring out just what that amount is, and are available on a number of websites. All you have to do is enter your financial details into the online calculator and it will bring up the figure you can afford – it really is that easy!
Most comparison sites and the websites of the e-lenders themselves offer an auto loan interest calculator so the first thing to do is to visit one of those sites. Each one is slightly different but the following example is fairly typical. Firstly, you will have to enter the price of the car. Even if you don’t know what car you want, you should know roughly the amount that you are willing to spend on your car. The next step on the auto loan interest calculator is to enter the amount that you can put down as a down payment. You don’t necessarily need a down payment and you can leave this section blank but do bear in mind that some lenders won’t approve you if you have no money to put down at all, and you are more likely to be offered a lower interest rate if you make a down payment. Any money you offer is collateral, meaning you will be perceived as less of a risk, and therefore a more favourable loan candidate.
The auto loan interest calculator will then require you to enter in the length of the term you would prefer. You can work this out from the amount of money you can realistically afford to pay each month. If you only have a small amount, you are looking at a longer term to give you the time to pay it all off. If you are able to afford to pay a reasonable amount each month, you may want a shorter term so that you end up paying less in interest over the course of the loan and of course, own it fully in a shorter length of time. Next, the auto loan interest calculator needs the interest rate of the loan – generally, if you have good credit it will be around 6% and if your credit rating is low it may be 10%. Remember, this is just an estimate so that you can work out roughly what you can afford so don’t worry too much about getting the figures spot-on. The amount you are financing will need to be entered into the auto loan interest calculator next – remember to take into consideration any down payment you will be making. Once all that information has been entered into the auto loan interest calculator, simply press ‘calculate’ and your monthly auto payment will be revealed.
An auto loan interest calculator can be a valuable tool when working out just what you can afford when you come to buy a car. Simply log onto the Internet and you will find many sites offering this service.