Do Auto Loan Calculators Tell the Whole Story

A Credit Article Contributed by Mark Mcclelland

Can't Find an Auto Loan Calculator? Here's How:

When you're looking for that new or used car online there's actually no shortage of tool available to help you make your purchase or leasing choice, including auto loan calculators. Practically every auto dealership web site you visit, as well as most all of the specialty web sites, like Edmunds and the Kelly Blue Book, also provide loan calculators to help you make you auto buying decision.

And most of these calculators work equally well whether you're considering an outright purchase or prefer a leasing arrangement. They may not always be easy to spot, and thet're not always called "auto loan calculator", but they're there.

There may be a "calculate payments" or a "payment calculator" hyperlink; the calculator may not become available until you've identified an auto you might be interested in, but one thing you can be sure of is that there's a loan calculator in that web site somewhere.

There is, in fact, a virtual plethora of such tools available, and all purport to spell out your options in clear concise terms, in exchange for your plugging in a few simple numbers.

Using an Auto Loan Calculator? Buyer Beware

And to be honest about it, most of the auto loan calculators do just that. You provide a few bits of data and they calculate your anticipated term and payments, along with perhaps a few other facts concerning your anticipated purchase or lease... but most is not all.

For example, the loan calculators provided by some credit companies may not clearly disclose all of the underlying assumptions concerning their calculations, like whether or not the calculations include administrative, or other fees, which might increase your effective interest rate. If there's the web site equivalent of "small print" shown on the web page, it'll pay to read it. It might save you heartaches later.

What Kind of Results Do Auto Loan Calculators Provide?

In exchange for your plugging in such data as the price or lease cost of the vehicle, any local and state sales tax percentage rates that may apply, your down payment amount, your preferred terms in months, perhaps your preferred annual interest percentage rate, and if appropriate the residual value of the vehicle at the end of the lease term, most calculators can do quite a bit of number crunching to figure things regarding your loan, like: your anticipated monthly payments, total of all payments, total cost after subtracting the value of your trade-in, any additional fees that may apply (perhaps, see above), and more.

Don't let the fact that these tools are only available on-line, or that they're crunching financial data, deter you. It really is easy to use most of the auto loan calculators, and you can bet that those web sites that provide difficult or confusing calculators are working to simplify and streamline them...it's just so much easier to to make purchasing and leasing decisions using clean, simple, honest and up front tools that it's in their best interest to do so. So, get on-line and check it out.