I have had my current auto loan for 5 months. I have made four payments on the loan so far. The principle loan ammount is 16,442. My monthly payments are 409. What i did is divide 16442 by my 60 month loan terms. I came up with a number of 274.00. So i figure i am paying 135.00 approx a month is interest. I'm at 16.9. So i did some calculations and i figured that 275.00 per month would go toward paying down the principle ammount and the 135 is just gravy for the sharks that financed me. When i added up 275.00 times the four monthly payments i have made so far that makes 1100 bucks toward my principal loan ammount. That should make my payoff ammount 15342. However when i called the automated line for wells fargo to check my payoff ammount it states a payoff ammount of 15965. This number is current till june 29 2003. Somehow over 600 dollars is tacked on to the principal ammount. I dont get it. Am i missing something here. All my payments so far have been on time and there is no pre-payment penalty. I checked these numbers because i am going to do a re-fi directly through american honda finance and save myself around 100 bucks a month. I wanted to do the re-fi when the principle ammount was at 13000. But the way things are going here its gonna take forever to pay this thing off. I think i did the math right. I just dont get where they tacked on 600 + dollars to my payoff ammount. Anyone got any ideas? -joe-
NEVERMIND GUYS. WENT TO THE AMERICAN HONDA FINANCE WEBSITE.FOUND MY ANSWER.EVEN THOUGH IT STINKS. All About Equity Throughout the term of your contract, your payments will consist of part principal and part finance charges. At the beginning, your monthly payment covers mostly finance charges, but as the term progresses, the ratio of finance charges to principal changes. Each payment you make increases the amount of equity you've built up in your vehicle; payment by payment, as the amount of principal you're paying increases, the amount of finance charges decreases.
Hmm, you have a 9.7% apr auto loan. pretty high but acceptable. You are paying 135 dollars of intrest with each payment, and the rest is principal .
Joey, http://ray.met.fsu.edu/~bret/amortize.html just clear the boxes and plug in your numbers, check the "show amortization" box and hit calculate. It will give you a complete schedule of what portion of interest and principal is being paid for the entire term of the loan. I like this one cause it is pretty simple and will calculate unknowns for you. Julie
Doesn't the interest go down each month? IE 1st month it's 135 and 2nd month it may be 130, etc. I know in my car loan (which is only .9%) the interest varies each month. I get a statement every 6 months showing what I paid to principal and interest. Almost like my home mortgage loan statement (escrow) each year.
