Auto loan financing paying off sooner?

The first thing you want to ask is whether or not there is a pre-payment penalty. Some lenders will add a pre-payment penalty in order to offset their costs and potentially offer you a lower rate. If you intend to pay it off early, you want to make sure there is no penalty for doing so. When you send in a payment (lets say you send in 1000 one month), that exceeds what the lender is expecting, you should contact them and explain how you want it applied. Do you want it applied to the principle or do you want to have the loan re-amortorized (which would lower your remaining payments). You will want to double check with your lender, however, to make sure they are willing to re-amortorize. Generally, if you pay your balance off early, you will be credited back finance charges that have not been accrued. Using your example: 9000 at 15% for 84 months means you will pay about $5588 in interest over the life of the loan (total amount financed would be 14,588). If you decide to pay the loan ...  more