Friday, August 05, 2011

The Power of Using a Car Finance Calculator


Getting a new vehicle is an exciting time and regardless as to whether you are buying brand new or a used model, finding the right one takes time and effort.

However, in order to avoid falling into unmanageable levels of debt it is equally important to thoroughly research how the purchase will be paid for and this is where a car finance calculator can be a real asset.

The majority of motorists have to rely on some kind of finance when buying a vehicle. Credit cards, personal loans as well as car finance are all options which are used to fund the purchase.

Many people make the decision about how and where to borrow money based on the monthly repayments but this can be misleading as loans taken out over a longer period of time can end up costing far more despite being cheaper on a monthly basis.

Before decide where to go for the money, it is a good idea to run your figures through a car finance calculator as this will help you determine not only how much money you will be repaying each month, but also the total amount the credit will cost over the whole term.

An online calculator also lets you take your time in mulling over the figures, perhaps returning to previous calculations, in order to work out what is affordable, without the pressure of a salesperson keeping one eye on their watch to see how much of their valuable time your dithering is costing them.

The internet has a whole host of free car finance calculators so even if the garage you are planning to buy from doesn't have a website, it is easy to enter the figures into one of the other calculators available to work out how much the deal is going to cost.

The best type of finance calculators offer a more flexible way of working out the figures. If you know how much you want to spend and the deposit you are able to contribute, the calculator can determine how much money you can borrow. This can sometimes be an easier way to find
out your maximum loan rather playing with the amount borrowed until the repayments reach an affordable level.

Car finance calculators also allow you to work out the difference a decent deposit will make and whether you will earn more interest from keeping some of the cash in the bank in a good savings account, or whether it is worth putting as much as possible as a down-payment to reduce the amount financed.

As well as the amount payable and interest rates, a car finance calculator also provides the facility to experiment with the term of the loan. Longer loans will invariably mean cheaper monthly repayments but for older vehicles, this could mean you end up repaying a loan for a vehicle which is no longer on the road, a very disheartening state of affairs.

The key to getting the most out of a car finance calculator is having a clear idea as to what you can honestly afford.

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