Determine Your New and Used Car Costs with Online Car Loan Payment Calculators

When you decide to buy a car, one of your most important decisions is how you are going to pay for the car. Whether you buy a new or used car and whether you purchase from a private party or shop at car dealers, you face this decision. You may decide to buy the car outright and pay cash or you may decide to finance the car. If you decide to seek financing, it is important to know how much your monthly payments will be with various prices, interest rates and terms. Being prepared with this information before you purchase or even visit a dealer is one of the first steps in learning how to negotiate financing a car.

One of the most useful online tools when you are considering financing a new or used car is the payment calculator. The following online car loan payment calculators are easy to use and can help you prepare to negotiate car financing.

CarCredit.com offers an easy to use payment calculator. To use the payment calculator, simply enter the purchase price of the auto you are considering. You may also enter the applicable sales tax for your area, any down payment amount you plan to make and the amount you anticipate receiving for your trade-in if you have one. The calculator will use this data to determine the amount you will need to finance. Then, by entering the interest rate and the duration of the loan, you may use the calculator to view the monthly payment associated with those loan terms and the total amount of interest you will owe over the life of the loan. You may also select the "Amortize" button to view the amount of interest that you will pay each year over the life of the loan.

RoadLoans.com offers a calculator with very basic options. The RoadLoans.com payment calculator allows you to enter the loan amount and the interest rate. You should manually account for your down payment, taxes and trade-in amounts and only enter the amount you plan to finance. The calculator then displays the monthly payment amount for all of the following loan durations: 24 months, 36 months, 48 months, 60 months and 72 months. This calculator also offers the option to enter your desired monthly payment and the current interest rate to determine what amount you can afford to finance over what duration.

HouseholdAuto.com provides a payment calculator that allows you to calculate a monthly payment for a financed amount or to calculate a financed amount based on the monthly payment you would like to make. It allows users to enter figures for trade-in value, down payment, taxes, loan duration and fees. A graph displays the principal owed over the course of the loan. HouseholdAuto.com also has a handy refinance calculator to allow you to compare your current auto loan terms with the terms you could get if you refinance.

MyAutoLoan.com's website has payment calculators by state that let you figure monthly payments based on the loan amount and interest rate. Their calculators will also allow you to enter your desired monthly payment amount to determine the dollar amount you can afford to finance.