I've tried some of the calculators on bankrate.com but it doesn't seem right. I'm trying to figure out when this auto loan will be paid off with the factors below.
Original Loan Terms:
$24336.59 for 76 months @ 16.95% (yes I know this is crazy!!) 
Loan start date: 3/04
Pymt is $544.48
Current Balance: $13,232.07
We've done a couple of "skip a notes" on this loans. We paid the interest charges and the tacked the note to the end of the loan.
We started paying an extra $150 towards the principal balance this month and will continue to the life of the loan.
When can I expect this to be paid off. BTW, I've already looked into refi but I would not save me any $$ and everyone wants to add months to the loan. I should have refi 1st thing! TIA
@a0034d wrote:
I've tried some of the calculators on bankrate.com but it doesn't seem right. I'm trying to figure out when this auto loan will be paid off with the factors below.Original Loan Terms:@$24336.59 for 76 months @ 16.95% (yes I know this is crazy!!)Loan start date: 3/04Pymt is $544.48Current Balance: $13,232.07We've done a couple of "skip a notes" on this loans. We paid the interest charges and the tacked the note to the end of the loan.We started paying an extra $150 towards the principal balance this month and will continue to the life of the loan.When can I expect this to be paid off. BTW, I've already looked into refi but I would not save me any $$ and everyone wants to add months to the loan. I should have refi 1st thing! TIA
a0034d, you should provide how much exactly was paid on the interest (during skip a note) and how much was tacked on to the end.
Was your original loan for 76 months or 72 months?
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@a0034d wrote:I've tried some of the calculators on bankrate.com but it doesn't seem right. I'm trying to figure out when this auto loan will be paid off with the factors below.Original Loan Terms:@$24336.59 for 76 months @ 16.95% (yes I know this is crazy!!)Loan start date: 3/04Pymt is $544.48Current Balance: $13,232.07We've done a couple of "skip a notes" on this loans. We paid the interest charges and the tacked the note to the end of the loan.We started paying an extra $150 towards the principal balance this month and will continue to the life of the loan.When can I expect this to be paid off. BTW, I've already looked into refi but I would not save me any $$ and everyone wants to add months to the loan. I should have refi 1st thing! TIA
Well, running the numbers, I get the following results...
First, with an initial principal of $24336.59 at 16.95% for 72 months the payment
would be $539.98 if compounded monthly. If they compound it daily the payment would
be a little larger, so your $544.48 sounds about right assuming an initial term of
72 months. I have never heard of a 76 month term so I presume that means you opted
to skip four payments extending the term and I cannot make the numbers come out
any other way, if the original term were the odd 76 months the payment would be about
sixteen dollars less.
SO, had you taken out a 72-month loan for $24336.59 at 16.95 percent starting in 3/04 and made all the payments as scheduled then you would owe $10,606.64 now. The balance you state of $13,232.07 is what you would have owed about seven months ago, so if you have skipped four payments then you owe somewhat more than expected based only on the amortization calculation, so the lender must have charged you some extra fees for extending the note. Anyhow, if you consistently pay the full amount PLUS an extra $150 a month without fail then you should have it paid in full around February of 2010. If you could come up with the scheduled payment PLUS $250 per month without fail then you should have it paid in full around November of 2009. If you could come up with the scheduled payment PLUS $300 per month without fail then you should have it paid in full around October of 2009.
In any event, at this point you will not get very much benefit from refinancing because you have already paid over 13 thousand dollars in finance charges. So what you should do is search diligently for every possible means to increase income and/or reduce expenses and put every available cent into paying down your debts as fast as possible. I do hope this car loan is your biggest debt.
Take a look at http://www.daveramsey.com/ for some advice on getting out of debt. I don't agree with everything Dave says, debt is not always bad, but it takes considerable skill and self-discipline to use debt positively and for many people debt is very bad.