Getting a car loan doesn't have to be a nightmare, even with bad credit.

When in a dealership or when dealing with finance, it’s inevitable to hear some puzzeling words that need a little bit more explanation. This article will describe Car Loan Amortization and show you clearly how it works.

Loan Amortization

What is Car Loan Amortization?

Amortization is a process where a loan is paid through previously arranged payments over a fixed period. The composition of the payments varies as the borrower pays both the principle and interest.

Therefore, a bad credit car amortized loan is one that has scheduled periods of payment applied to both their principal and interest. The amount you pay for the loan’s interest and the principal is different each month although the total payment made remains equal in each period. This is because the payment consists of parts that change over time.

Each payment portion goes towards reducing the balance of your loan and the interest’s cost.  Reducing your loan balance involves paying off the loan principal. A loan principal is an amount you are borrowing from the lender and the interest’s cost is the amount of money you are charged by the lender for the time you will have the loan.

Interest costs are at the highest at the beginning of the loan. This mostly happens in long-term loans. Hence, most of the payment that you make in the beginning is an interest expense thus a small portion of the balance is paid in this period. As you proceed with the payment more is taken to the principal each month and the interest is paid proportionately less.

The design of amortized loans allows you to complete the payment of the loan over a fixed period.  The last payment that you will make, will complete the amount remaining on your debt. Take an instance, you had an amortized loan to be paid in a fixed period of 20 years, after exactly 20 years, you will have completed the loan payment.

Reason Why Loans are Amortized

Amortized loans benefit both borrowers and lenders.

  • The borrower benefits by having a consistent payment since the bank or the lender offers the same payment throughout the time the borrower has the loan. This is compared to cases when there are huge payments at the beginning and the reductions occur as one proceeds with the payment.
  • The lender benefits from amortized loans as they will be in a position to get their profits on every loan at the beginning of the loan’s lifecycle. Hence, there will be no losses, in case the borrower becomes delinquent or when the borrower chooses to pay off the loan early before the fixed period.

An Amortization Schedule

An amortization schedule also known as an amortization table assists in helping you understand the amount you pay for the interest, how each payment you make affects the loan and knowing the debt remaining at a given time. This is beneficial because;

  • Knowledge of the true cost of borrowing

With the amortization schedule, you have a detailed picture of the components of the loan. Therefore, you are aware of the interest’s costs rather than focusing on monthly payments. Many people focus on the monthly payment rather than interest costs. However, it’s wise to consider the interest’s cost as they are better at measuring the real cost of what you have purchased. In some cases, when there’s a lower monthly payment, you will end up paying more in interest for instance, when the repayment time is stretched.

  • Assists in wise decision making

You’re able to choose which loan is considered when there are different terms by different lenders.  You get to know how much you could save when the interest rate is lower and how much you could save if you paid the debt early as you may end up skipping the remaining charges in most of the loans.

Loan calculator

You can get a car loan amortization table in several ways that include the following;

  1. Create your own by hand
  2. Utilize an online calculator that will build a table for you
  • Create an amortization schedule using spreadsheets and assist in analyzing the loans

Among the three ways, most people find the online calculators and the online spreadsheets as the easiest to create an amortization table with. If you prefer not to create the whole model from scratch, you could copy and paste the online calculator’s output into a spreadsheet.

Knowledge of the monthly payment

This payment is based on the amount of loan, the interest rate and the fixed period to pay the loan. The three aspects affect your interest’s cost and how much you pay each month. When the interest rate is lower, it can decrease your payment, and you save a significant amount of money. When the period of the loan is stretched for a longer time, your payment will also be decreased, but you will pay more in interest over the loan’s lifespan.

To amortize a car loan using this table and follow the steps below.

  1. Note your starting loan balance
  2. Figure out the payment
  3. Figure out the monthly interest charge
  4. Get the principal you will pay that month by deducting the interest charge from the payment
  5. Get the remaining loan balance by deducting the amount of principal paid
  6. Start over with the following month.

Types of Loans That Are Amortized

  • Auto loans

They are usually five-year or shorter amortized loans that are paid with a fixed monthly payment. Most people consider buying a car in monthly payment alone. As highlighted above, stretching the period of payment can increase the amount of interest you pay, therefore, in this case, your loan may exceed the car’s resale value.

  • Home loans

Traditionally, they are 15 to 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. Nevertheless, most people refinance the loans or sell the loan to avoid keeping it for that long.

  • Personal loans

These are obtained from a credit union, a bank or online lenders. They usually have fixed interest rates, fixed monthly payments and are often three-year terms.

Consider car loan amortization as it will guide you in the payment for the whole period and ensure that you have chosen a suitable and beneficial car loan.