Looking for options on my terrible car loan

[Anonymous]

Great job geting out of 22.9%; with your current scores that was throwing cash away.  

[Anonymous]

Fantastic job!  Slam dunk savings.

Now...how about taking the payment you WERE making and take the new loan out of that and put the rest into your future downpayment?

Live like you didn't refinance the loan, so that next time you'll have a trade-in plus cash on the table and get yourself a small payment with the next car.

[Anonymous]

Well ill be saving about 70 dollars a month (to be fair, looking at the payment schedule and total finance charges, i just saved six THOUSAND in interest)

Sick.

And yeah I was actually considering upping my 401k contribution a percent now that I have that extra 70, but either way I am going to make it into more money.  Whether I save it or put it towards a future car (my current vehicle is actually in excellent condition so I will probably be driving it well after the 36 months are over)

All good advice, I got lucky man.  I did NOT expect my bank to come through for me.

[Anonymous]

1) Congrats!!!!

Very happy you got lucky!!!

My advice to anybody facing the situation the OP originally had in Feb (cause many might not be so lucky on the back end)

is 

With 2k one can either

a) Buy a 2k commuter to drive as you save up for better

b) Have Max loan of 5-6k, so the 2k is a HUGE down, creating better terms and then, complete a)

The OP had an overall 'small' auto loan and was actually SAVED by the overall amount, honestly....this type of 'mess' is a death nail

as the dollar amounts pick up....this is much more difficult to get RESCUED from when the dollar amounts are in the tens of thousands vs sub 10 overall.

PLEASE, PLEASE...BE CAREFUL!!!!

High % auto loans are dangerous....truth be told a 6k ride vs a 10k ride, can't be that much in terms of the WHAT one is driving

But the loan terms and ability to pivot a few months later, into a better situation can be DRAMATICALLY different

= Don't SHOP with your 'heart' n 'eyes' when you're in 'need' a car mode... ALWAYS seek to make a 'financial' 2-step decision,

always consider what's next, financially vs if you like the color (it's all temporary....in 10-15 months your world, will generally be different, just like the OP found out)

=Great story, but most better not, bank on it!

[Appleman]

Outstanding story, that is a great improvement in interest rate!

I was doing some calculations and did some rounding to simplify things a bit.

I assumed you financed $10,000 at 22.9% for 54 months as you list.

IF you would have made 9 payments under the scheduled payments and should owe $8,956. That means you paid extra and looks like you already shortend the loan by about 10 months. A great start for getting out of that situation.

Looking at where you were on the old amortization schedule, your next payment would have been approximately $150 toward interest and $150 toward principal.

With the new 36 month loan you new payment is around $221 and your first payment has $196 going to principal and $25 for interest. Saving $125 of interest the first month!

So from this point the old loan was going to cost you just shy of $3,000  in interest and the new loan will cost you about $460 in interest. 

The future is indeed bright!