Overhaulin'

how to beat the interest rate on a car loan and still pay quicker?

i have a fairly new car loan which is currently at $15,936.50 with wachovia Bank. i bought the car on sep.2007. anyways, i did the math of my last payment that i sent, and i believe it went towards interest and not my principle of my car. please help me to understand how to beat the interest rate and pay off my car quicker?

Public Comments

1. With a new loan, the majority of the payment will go towards the interest. If you can pay down the balance, let your finance company know to apply as a priciple reduction, not a payment any extra money that you have.
2. In order to pay it off faster, make extra payments and send a letter with those payments, telling the bank to apply the payment to your principal balance. Otherwise, they credit it toward the interest first. When I was a realtor, I advised my clients to take a 30 year mortgage,and make 13 payments a year, to apply one payment to principal reduction. You'd be amazed at how much that brings down your mortgage balance--almost cuts it in half. Of course, it has less impact for a car, which is a shorter loan, but the same method works. Good luck!
3. the 1st year about 80% will go to intrest instead of principal then after the 1st year more goes to principal the only way to "beat interest" is to pay more send twice the amount to pay your loan off sooner is the only way to do it