Car Loan Payoff Calculator
See how much sooner an extra amount each week clears the car loan, and what it saves in interest.
How to pay your car loan off faster
Three ways to send more principal. They stack, and each one updates the numbers on the right.
Paying half the monthly amount every two weeks makes 13 payments a year instead of 12. Tick this to set your own amount.
A refund or bonus put straight at the balance, once a year.
About $108 a month, because a year holds 52 weeks rather than 48. This is the number Pace frees up: what is left after bills, as one weekly figure.
Finding the extra is the hard part, not the arithmetic. Pace counts your bills first and shows what is genuinely free to spend this week, so the money you put at this balance is money you already knew you could spare.
Find your weekly numberEstimates are educational. They assume a fixed rate and a fixed payment, and they exclude fees. Pace is budgeting software, not a financial advisor.
Two things to check on a car loan
Most car loans use simple interest, which means interest accrues on the balance daily and extra principal reduces it immediately. That is the good case, and it is what this calculator assumes.
A minority of loans are written with precomputed interest, where the total interest is fixed at signing. Paying early on one of those saves far less, sometimes nothing. The loan agreement will say which you have, and it is worth two minutes to find out before sending a large extra payment. Check for a prepayment penalty in the same pass.
Being underwater is the other thing worth knowing. Cars lose value faster than most loans amortise, so for the first stretch you may owe more than the car is worth. Paying extra closes that gap sooner, which matters if the car is written off or you need to sell.
Frequently asked questions
- Is there a penalty for paying off a car loan early?
- Usually not, but it is not universal. Check the agreement for a prepayment penalty or a precomputed-interest clause before making a large extra payment.
- Does paying off a car loan early hurt my credit?
- It can nudge the score down slightly by closing an active installment account, and the effect is small and temporary. It is not a reason to carry interest you could avoid.
- Should I pay off the car or the credit card first?
- Whichever costs more, which is almost always the credit card. Car loan rates are typically well below card rates.
- How do I pay off a car loan faster?
- Pay every two weeks, add one extra payment a year, or add a fixed amount each week. On a simple-interest car loan the extra reduces principal immediately. Check the agreement for a prepayment penalty or precomputed interest first, because those change the answer.
- Do biweekly payments work on a car loan?
- On a simple-interest loan, yes: 26 half-payments a year is 13 monthly payments rather than 12, and interest accrues daily so the earlier money helps twice. On a precomputed-interest loan the benefit is much smaller.
More calculators
See the full set on the calculators page.