Car Loan Calculator

Total purchase price (before tax)

This is the advertised price of the vehicle you’re looking to buy. Please note that this isn’t the “original price” or the “MSRP” price; this would be the final price after all savings and rebates.

Term in months

Your term in months or loan term is how long you want to spend paying off your new vehicle. Loan terms can start as low as 12 months, but most fall in the 36-to-72-month range. Choosing your loan term can drastically change your payment. This is probably the most important decision you have to make when financing a vehicle. So, play around with our car loan calculator Tyler, and find out which term length works best for you!

Interest rate

This is one of the easiest parts of the calculator to fill out. If you’ve found a vehicle you’d like to buy, just contact us to know what our interest rates are, here. Simply put in one that seems realistic based on your credit history. If you’re not sure what y our interest rate is likely to be, don’t worry. Just try a few numbers (0%, 5%, 10%) to see how the payment amount changes, just to have an idea before speaking to the dealership.

Down payment

The best way to lower your vehicle payment is to put money down when you initiate the deal. This is called a down payment. For example, if you’re buying a $20,000 vehicle, your auto loan would be for $20,000, plus whatever the interest is. But with a $4000 down payment, you’ll only have to take out a $16,000 loan, plus interest. The benefit here, aside from a lower sale price, is that you will have lower monthly payments. Try using different down payments in the car loan calculator Tyler, to see how much the payments change. 

Trade allowance

Your trade allowance or trade-in value is the amount of money the dealership will pay you to buy your current vehicle. Trading in your vehicle is probably the best way to lower the cost of the new vehicle you’re going to buy

Amount owed on trade

If you haven’t fully paid off the car loan of the vehicle you’re trading in, then the amount you still owe is what is “owed on trade.” The amount that you owe on trade will be added to the price of the vehicle you’re buying, raising its price. So, if you’re planning on buying a $20,000 vehicle and you still owe $4,000 on the vehicle you’re trading in, then you would need to take out a loan for $24,000 (plus interest) in order to buy the new vehicle.

Sales tax

The sales tax on your purchase will be different depending on the state you’re buying your vehicle in.

Kelly Community Federal Credit Union’s Auto Loan Calculator

Car shopping is an expensive endeavor that many people cannot afford with just the money in their checking accounts. So, when a new car becomes a necessity, many people choose to take out an auto loan to help make the overall cost more manageable.

Despite these loans being common for many car shoppers, they can become significant stressors for those unprepared to make a monthly payment higher than anticipated. However, even a new car buyer can feel comfortable during the loan process with the right tools, and the most common and accessible of those tools is an auto loan calculator.

Auto loan calculators let car shoppers figure out their monthly loan payments based on standard loan terms like interest rate, the cost of their new vehicle, and how long they want to be making payments.

An auto loan calculator can be immensely beneficial for car shoppers who don’t know much about the loan process.

Why You Should Use an Auto Loan Calculator

An auto loan calculator can be vital for helping you figure out the specific details of how to structure your loan to get the most affordable payments. Since auto loans come with the costly collateral payment of ownership over your new car, ensuring that you can comfortably make your payments is essential.

Many varying factors determine an overall auto loan amount, which an auto loan calculator can keep track of and use to determine what your monthly payments will be and how much money you should put down. Among the factors determining your loan amount and what the monthly payments will look like include interest rate, trade allowance, and the months of the loan term, to name a few.

With all of these moving parts, getting a firm handle on the exact loan terms you need to feel comfortable with your payments can be challenging for most car shoppers. However, an auto loan calculator can remove any confusion and give buyers an idea of what to look for with their loan to keep their payments affordable.

How to Use an Auto Loan Calculator Properly

Using an auto loan calculator might feel daunting at first with all the factors that car buyers will need to consider. However, once you have a sense of the overall cost of your new car and the loan conditions of your lender, using an auto loan calculator properly becomes a simple task.

It is crucial to know these pieces of information to receive an accurate picture of how much money you can expect to owe per month.

• Total Purchase Price Before Tax: The total purchase price is the overall amount you spend on your new car before taxes. The purchase price will shift both the overall loan amount you should ask for and the cost of monthly payments.
• Interest Rate: Your loan interest rate is how much your loan lender will add to the cost of your vehicle. Depending on the interest rate of your loan, you end up paying that percentage more than the original cost of your car.
• Loan Term in Months: This is how long your loan payments will last, from the moment you officially receive your auto loan to the day you pay it off.
• Down Payment Information: Your down payment is how much money you initially spend on your vehicle before receiving a loan. The amount of your down payment will depend on how much the total purchase price is defrayed by the money you receive from trading in your old vehicle.

With the complete information on your down payment, the interest rates you can afford, and the range of your car shopping budget, you can use an auto loan calculator to learn how much your monthly loan payments will cost and how much money you should seek from your loan.