Top Online Calculators with Tax
While there are a lot of auto loan calculators out there, there is this annoying little caveat that many of them only calculate the amount before fees and taxes. The issue with doing it this way is that you don’t get the full picture of how much your payments are actually going to be. In order to make a properly informed decision, you must also account for taxes and fees. Here are some of the best options to get a full account of your potential loan – taxes included.
1.Calculator.net
The Calculator.net site has a number of important options among auto loan calculators. For example, you can input your state from the drop-down list, add in the sales tax percentage, and even add any extra registration, titles, or extra fees into the calculation. There’s also a checkbox that makes it so that you can either include all the fees in the loan or not, depending on your preference.
You can go by total price or by monthly payment. There are even charts that jump up after you hit “Calculate” in the green box. These include an Amortization Graph that has the balance, interest, and payment options on a line graph, as well as a “Loan Breakdown” graph as a pie chart. This way you can visually depict exactly how much of the whole loan is going to be filled up with interest. Seeing the chart like this is an effective way to troubleshoot whether you want to go for a smaller loan term in order to manage that interest.
Bottom Line: Calculator.net has an excellent auto loan calculator that works especially well for those who want charts and a lot of detail. A good choice from online auto loan calculators out there.
2. Cars.com
The auto loan calculator here is nice and simple. It’s easy to fill out and understand instantly. All you have to do is fill out your vehicle price, what the down payment is, what the trade-in value is, the sales tax you have, your APR, your term, and that’s all. It will come up with the estimated payment and car price right at the top of the page. For simplicity, this one seems to be the simplest out of auto loan calculators available.
There aren’t a lot of extra bells and whistles here, but you don’t always need them. The other thing you can do on this page is search for cars, either used or new, by model or make, and by a certain number of miles away from your zip code, all with a price going up to what you calculated.
Bottom Line: This auto loan calculator is perfect for those who want to see what the loan they’re considering is going to cost quickly in a straightforward, easy-to-read format.
3. Calculate Stuff
The calculator at Calculate Stuff is another excellent choice because you can put in your vehicle price before tax and then add the sales tax rate to that in order to get an accurate projection. You just have to add the usual information, including also the start date, and you’ll get an output of the monthly payment in big blue numbers. This site will also give you a combined bar and line graph for charting out your schedule visually, as well as what it looks like year by year in the text.
The chart is interactive with a zoom feature so that you can see it better. There’s even a link to share the results with others if you need advice. Interactivity is quite a good feature that not all auto loan calculators have.
Bottom Line: The Calculate Stuff calculator works well if you want to quickly share the loan projection with others.
4. Car Payment Calculator
Car Payment Calculator has a calculator that’s a bit more detailed. The extra bit they have here is allowing for depreciation if you want to track the value of your car as the loan progresses. It also expedites the down payment and trade-in costs by having you calculate them together in one box.
Other extra options that other calculators may not have here include the ability to add in a rebate or enter how much you owe on your trade-in if you’re rolling that into the loan.
Bottom Line: If you want to track depreciation, this is the calculator that you want.
5. Online Loan Calculator
The calculator here also comes with a graph, but it’s at the top, so you have to scroll down on the site before you can find where you enter the other information. Most of the data you’ll be inputting is similar to other calculators, with the one difference being that you can change the “output parameters” in order to choose whether to draw charts and tables and what parameters you want them to have.
Bottom Line: You can get a bit more control over how information is displayed here.
Overall, there’s a lot of variety in these calculators, so you should be able to find the one you want.
