This process of paying down debt is called amortization. A loan’s term affects your monthly payment and your total interest costs. But a longer term also results in more interest charges over the life of that loan. You effectively pay more for whatever you’re buying when you pay more interest.

A maximum loan amount describes the total sum that one is authorized to borrow on a line of credit, credit card, personal loan, or mortgage. In determining an applicant’s maximum loan amount, lenders consider debt-to-income ratio, credit score, credit history, and financial profile.

>True Costs of Credit The total or “true cost” of a loan includes not only the original loan amount but also all the interest, spread out over the term or length of the loan. For example, let’s say you have a car loan of $20,000, and your loan interest rate is 8%. The term of the loan is 5 years.

Bottom line. Getting the shortest loan term helps you save on the total cost of your loan and in some cases might help you qualify for lower rates and fees. But a longer loan term can make your repayments low enough that they don’t affect your budget.

Shorter loans will come with less interest over the term and have higher payments. Longer-term loans will have lower monthly payments, but more interest over the term.

Your monthly car payment serves to pay down the loan’s principal, as well as interest and fees. The higher your interest rate, the higher your monthly payment will be. Let’s say you’re able to get a lower interest rate of 4% on that five-year $25,000 loan.

A short auto loan length may be 36 months to one borrower, and 12 months to another. A 60-month car loan was long considered conventional, but the average new-car buyer is creeping closer to 70 months. Some banks and credit unions even offer 96-month terms.

Auto loans over 60 months are not the best way to finance a car because, for one thing, they carry higher car loan interest rates. Experian reveals that 42.1% of used-car shoppers are taking 61- to 72-month loans while 20% go even longer, financing between 73 and 84 months.

The trend for longer auto loans means some consumers can qualify for financing up to 96 months, or eight years, should they want it. The average loan term, meanwhile, stands at almost 69 months for new and 65 months for used vehicles, according to Experian data for the start of 2019.

Typically, a bank won’t finance any vehicle older than 10 years, even if you have good credit. If you don’t have great credit, you may find it difficult to finance through a bank, even for a new car. But, banks are far from the last option when it comes to auto lending.

Some banks, including Chase, and most credit unions will consider loans on used vehicles that are 10 years of age or older.

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The biggest advantage of 60-month car loans is that you have five years to pay them off. Because of this, your monthly payments will be much lower than if you have a three or four year loan.

An 84-month auto loan can mean lower monthly payments than you’d get with a shorter-term loan. But having as long as seven years to pay off your car isn’t necessarily a good idea. You can find a number of lenders that offer auto loans over an 84-month period — and some for even longer.

To calculate your monthly car loan payment by hand, divide the total loan and interest amount by the loan term (the number of months you have to repay the loan). For example, the total interest on a $30,000, 60-month loan at 4% would be $3,150.

To calculate the monthly interest, simply divide the annual interest rate by 12 months. The resulting monthly interest rate is 0.417%. The total number of periods is calculated by multiplying the number of years by 12 months since the interest is compounding at a monthly rate.