Posts Tagged: Buy Car


21
Nov 09

Car Loan Calculator

If you are planning to buy a car and think that you may take out a loan to fund your purchase, you would be wise to use a car loan calculator on every step of your journey. There are many companies on the internet who will offer you finance for your purchase and some of them will be a little less scrupulous than others. Some of them are not interested in what is best for yourself as the buyer and are just keen to sign you up to a finance agreement that will ensure a high commission for themselves.

On the internet, it is possible to find sites that have a car loan calculator which is very adaptable and will help with not only calculating loan repayments but also with many of the others steps involved in purchasing a car. It will give you comparison calculations for options such as leasing rather than buying and the financial differences between buying used or new vehicles.

A car loan calculator will also compare figures when it comes to depreciation so that you have some kind of idea what your vehicle will be worth by the time you have repaid your loan. This way you will know the value of your car if you should wish to upgrade once your have finished your repayments.

Auto loans can be quite variable when it comes to the repayment period. Some are short term and some can be spread over a longer period. The longer the period you take to repay the loan the more you will end up paying. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it means that, even though you end up paying more, your monthly repayment will be smaller. A car loan calculator will be able to tell you exactly how much you will end up paying in total. It is easy to think that the best way is to repay it quickly and lower the final sum paid, but that is only good if you are absolutely confident that you can meet those monthly repayments. Otherwise this could lead to you losing your car and gaining a bad credit reference. Sometimes it is better to opt for a higher overall cost but spread over a longer period with lower monthly repayments. Again, the depreciation calculator will be able to tell you what your car will be worth at the end of it all.

If you have a sensible attitude towards purchasing your new vehicle you should be able to use a car loan calculator all through the buying process. This will ensure that there are no nasty surprises when you are given the loan agreement. You will have a clear idea of the loan repayments, the total amount that you will end up paying and even what your car will be worth when you have finished making the payments.

By: Robert Grazian


3
Oct 09

Get The Right Car Finance

These days when you step into a car showroom, there will be two major things that the dealer will be offering you. First he will be offering you cars, and secondly he will be offering you finance packages. This is how you should look at it. The fact of the matter is you may probably wouldn’t buy a car from your bank, even if they started offering them, so you may wish to apply the same scrutiny to the finance packages available at the car dealership and choose to buy only you car there and the finance package elsewhere.

It may be that there is nothing wrong with the finance being offered at the car dealership and in many cases this will be true. However, you must be aware that just because you buy your car there, does not in any way imply that you have to use the finance options and terms that they are offering. You are always free to take a loan from somewhere else, such as a bank, and pay for the car outright, and then simply make the loan repayments to the bank as with any other loan.

You should be careful to find out exactly how much you are being charged for car finance. The primary way to calculate the charge of any credit is by using the APR or annual percentage rate. This calculates the cost of the loan using a standardised formula and all lenders must use the same method of calculation. However, just because a car dealer’s APR looks attractive does not mean your search is over. You should also, always find out how much the car would cost if you paid in cash. Remember that providing a cash discount is exactly the same as charging extra for credit. If the cash price is lower, then you may be better off getting the loan from elsewhere and paying for the car with cash, this will take advantage of the better price and you will have a smaller amount to pay back to your lender.

The other thing you should look out for is down payments and closing payments. These are payments that are paid at the beginning or end of the term of the loan, and while the monthly payment terms may be attractive, it could well be the case that there are large additional payments to make and you should not forget to calculate these in when pricing the finance.

Car finance can be almost as important as the deal you get on the car itself and you should always regard getting a good deal on the financing as part of the process of getting a new car.

By: Joseph Kenny