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"How do I pay off my car loan early after getting some extra cash? "

"I recently got the money I need to pay off my car loan early. On the original agreement, there are two numbers listed for the price of the car: the principal amount and the total amount. Which one do I need to pay?

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Johnny Puckett · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
“The principal amount is how much you financed, while the total amount is how much you will pay with interest and all of the other finance charges. Unless you have not made a single payment, you will not want to pay either one of those amounts.
What you will want to do is get on the phone or schedule an in-person meeting with your lender. Your lender will then give you the current total balance due, which is the amount you’ll have to pay.
However, before you go paying off the loan, you should really do the math to see if you are going to save any money by paying the loan off early. A lot of loans have fees written into them that are designed to discourage people from paying them off early. “
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