Car Loan Calculator - Calculate Your Repayments

Calculators can be helpful tools when comparing car loans. RateCity provides users with two different car loan calculators to assist in narrowing down your search: a Repayment Calculator and a Borrowing Power Calculator.

What can a car loan Repayment Calculator tell me?

A Repayment Calculator may be able to provide you with an estimate of your potential car loan repayments, based on your ideal loan amount, loan term, and interest rate. Using the information you provide, the car loan calculator will estimate your potential weekly, fortnightly, or monthly repayments, as well as the interest payable over the life of the loan.

Once you have an idea of the total cost of a potential car loan and what your repayments might be, you’ll be better armed with the information and research you’ll need to make a more informed decision.

If you’re deciding between a few different car loan options, you can enter a number of interest rates and loan terms to compare how your repayments might vary in each scenario. This could help you to find a car loan that better suits your budget and goals.

Using the calculator won’t affect your credit score, so you can use it as many times as you like to compare different loans.

What can a car loan Borrowing Power Calculator tell me?

A Borrowing Power Calculator assesses your personal financial information to offer a general idea of how much you may be able to borrow.

By examining your credit score and potential interest rate, as well as how much you can afford to repay and at what frequency, you’ll be given an estimate of your “borrowing power”: how much you can borrow and service affordably.

This calculation may come in handy when narrowing down your shortlist of vehicle options, whether online or at a car dealership, as you’ll have a better understanding of the various options you may be able to afford.

The Borrowing Power Calculator provides you with an estimate of how much you may be able to borrow for a car loan based on what you can afford to repay.

Results are based on a loan term of five years and assumes the interest rate does not fluctuate for said term. Please read the Calculator Assumptions and Disclaimers for more information.

Here is how to use the car loan Borrowing Power Calculator:

1. Enter how much you can afford to repay: Take stock of your budget, review your income and expenses, and enter how much you want to repay with your car loan.
2. Enter your preferred interest rate: Once you’ve made a short list of options from our comparison tables, enter your rate requirements.
3. Select a repayment frequency: Consider the frequency at which you’d like to make repayments: weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. For example, some people are paid monthly so the latter option may be a better fit for their budget.
4. Enter your credit score: While not necessary for the calculation, by entering your credit score you can view a range of car loan options under the results page that may suit your financial situation.
5. View results: To the right of the page, you will see your estimated borrowing power, based on your details for a loan term of five years. You can also view your estimated total interest payable based on this loan term too.

As you may have noticed, both car loan calculators request that you enter your credit score. This is because car loan lenders take your credit history and credit score into consideration when determining not only whether to approve your loan but set your interest rate.

Car loan lenders can provide their interest rates in a range, for example, from 5% - 11%, and the rate you may be offered will depend on several factors, including your credit score. By presenting yourself as the most “ideal” borrower (good to excellent credit score, on a full-time income, employed for over 6 months etc.) you may be more likely to be approved for the lender’s lower interest rates.

What’s my credit rating?

Your credit score can impact your chances of being approved for a car loan. Before you apply for any financial product, including credit cards or home loans, it’s best that you find out your credit rating. This is because a bad credit history and poor credit score increases your chances of being rejected for the financial product. And as any rejections may further hurt your credit score, you want to avoid this as best you can.

To get a free copy of your credit scores from the main credit reporting bureaus in Australia – Equifax and Experian – please visit RateCity’s Credit Score Hub. A ‘soft’ credit check will be performed on your credit history, meaning this will not affect your credit score.

Before you make any applications, it’s important to be across the various factors that make up a standard car loan. Here are some of the things you should understand before applying for a car loan.

• Interest rates – Car loan interest rates are a significant factor of how much your ongoing repayments will cost, and how much you may pay over the life of the loan, charged on top of the principal owing. Be sure to not only compare the advertised rates but also the different comparison rates as these generally include some additional fees and charges, based on a hypothetical five-year $30,000 car loan.
• Fees – Typical fees you may be charged include establishment fees or application fees, ongoing fees such as account-keeping fees, early repayment fees and redraw fees.
• Repayments – To clear your loan, you need to make regular repayments in either weekly, fortnightly, or monthly instalments. The amount you will repay will depend on your interest rate, whether you are on a fixed or variable rate, fees, how long your loan term is and whether you have opted for a balloon payment.
• Lending criteria – Different loans will have different lending criteria, so it’s a good idea to make sure you meet the criteria for the loan product you’re interested in before you submit your application. This generally includes being an Australian citizen or permanent resident, meeting an income minimum and having a good to excellent credit score.

To find the car loan that best suits your financial situation, it might be worthwhile considering the following:

What additional costs should you consider when comparing car finance options?

As well as calculating how much you can comfortably afford to borrow, it might also be worth factoring in any extra costs that can come with car ownership. This may better prepare you to budget for ongoing costs that are additional to your loan repayment.

Some common, extra costs car owners might incur include:

• Stamp duty
• Motor vehicle registration
• Car insurance
• Petrol
• Regular servicing and repairs
• Road tolls

A car loan calculator and a personal loan calculator are very similar, apart from one key feature: the default interest rate. This is because the average interest rate for both car loans and personal loans is different.

A car loan is typically secured against the vehicle and secured loans generally attract lower interest rates. Comparatively, the average personal loan rate may be much higher as it’s lifted by the number of unsecured personal loan rates in the RateCity database. Therefore, the average car loan interest rate may be lower than that of a personal loan. 

So, when using the car loan calculator and personal loan calculator, you may find the default interest rate is different, and that if you don’t set an interest rate the estimated repayments may be higher for personal loans.