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How do you calculate the finance charge on a car loan?

What’s the best way to calculate the total finance charge on my car loan? I want to figure out exactly how much I’ll be paying for my loan so that I can budget accordingly.

avatar
Liz Jenson · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
To figure out the
total finance charges
on a car loan, you can use the following equation:
(Monthly payment amount * Total number of payments) - Amount borrowed
This should give you an idea of how much you’ll be paying in interest and fees throughout the loan. If you don’t know the monthly payment amount, don’t worry! You can calculate it in Excel or Google Sheets by typing in this formula:
=PMT(interest rate as a decimal/12, number of months in loan term, total loan amount including fees)
When you plug in the values specific to your loan, this equation should give you your monthly payment amount as a negative number. Then, you can use that number to calculate the total finance charge.
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