How much vehicle can you afford? Estimate what your monthly car payments are going to be using our car payment calculator. Enter your information and see how much your monthly car payments could be. You can adjust the down payment, length of the loan, and interest rate to see how these affect your monthly payments.
Title and other fees and incentives are not included in this calculation, which is an estimate only. Monthly payment estimates are for informational purpose only. Other taxes may apply.
A down payment is part of the car’s price that you pay upfront when you purchase a vehicle. Because you paid for part of the car at purchase, if lowers the amount of money to have to pay for the car and lower your monthly loan payment. Generally, you should expect the down payment to be 20 percent of the price of the vehicle. Vehicles depreciate rapidly, so making no down payment or a smaller down payment, you could end up owing on your auto loan than your car is worth.
Though 20 percent is a recommended down payment, some car loans don’t require a down payment. Enter this amount in the calculator “Down Payment” box.
The interest rate is how the car loan company makes money for loaning you money. You loan interest rate has a huge impact on your monthly car payment. It’s the percentage of the loan amount that accrues over the term of the loan.
The auto loan interest rate is determined by how much risk your represent to the loan company. If you have a good credit score, steady employment, and low income-to-debt ratio, then your considered more likely to be able to make your monthly payment repay the loan, making you a lower risk to the loan company. In which case, you will probably qualify for a lower interest rate. If you have a bad credit score, history of not making payments, or carry a lot of debt, then you will likely have a higher interest rate and the loan will cost you more money over the life of the loan.
You should shop around for interest rates from different lenders. Know your credit score before you shop around. To get a better rate, you can also work to rehabilitate your credit in the months before your buy a car, which could lower your monthly payment and save you thousands over the life of the loan.
Enter this rate amount in the “Interest Rate” box.
The auto loan term is how long you have to pay back the car loan. A longer term will lower your monthly payment, but takes longer to pay back your loan down. With a longer term loan, you could pay more interest that your car is worth. Shorter term loans pay down the loan quicker and save you money on interest, however, you will have a higher monthly payment. Adjust the loan terms in our calculator in the “period” box to strike a balance between the monthly payment you can afford and in a term that get your loan paid quickly.
