Before you agree to start making biweekly car payments, it's important for you to sit down and crunch the numbers to see if it makes sense for you.
Our bi-weekly auto loan calculator is a great tool to get accurate numbers in a snap. It illustrates how much you can save on interest for the car you're interested in buying.
To take a look at why bi weekly car payments are starting to become more popular, see our detailed FAQ below.
The concept behind biweekly car payments is actually pretty simple to understand.
Normally, when you finance a vehicle, you will be asked to make one payment every month in order to pay down the principal on your auto loan as well as the interest on it.
You might make that payment on, say, the 15th every month and be done with it until the following month. But with biweekly payments in place, you would be taking a slightly more aggressive approach to paying down your debt.
Rather than simply making one payment a month on your vehicle, you would take the total amount owed per month, cut it in half, and then pay that amount every two weeks.
To you, it would probably feel like you were paying the same amount of money every month for your car. However, you would actually be making an extra payment on your vehicle every year by utilizing this method.
If your car payment would normally be $200 for the month, with bi-weekly payments you'll pay $100 every two weeks instead. For the most part, it would still feel like you were paying $200 a month total.
Since there are 52 weeks in a year, you would make 26 payments total, which would work out to be one extra payment that would be applied to your loan principal.
As long as you don't miss any payments, you would be paying down the debt you owe more quickly without really noticing it.
It's why so many dealerships are starting to suggest the idea of biweekly car payments to their customers.
As a consumer, you don't want to be paying down debt any longer than you really have to. Your goal should be to get rid of debt as quickly as you possibly can without hurting your bottom line.
Biweekly car payments can make this possible for you.
When you are making what amounts to an extra payment on your vehicle every year, you're going to start knocking down your loan principal a lot quicker than you would otherwise.
This will, first and foremost, put you in a better financial position since your car will be paid off more quickly.
Plugin some numbers into our bi weekly auto loan calculator to see how much money you can save with this payment setup. And that's not the only big advantage you'll get to enjoy.
One of the other benefits of biweekly car payments is that it will allow you to put yourself in a position to trade your vehicle in sooner if you would like.
Since you'll be able to get more equity in your vehicle in a shorter amount of time, you won't have to wait until your loan is almost paid off to consider trading your car in.
There are a lot of car owners who love this particular aspect of biweekly car payments.
With a 72-month car loan term, which has become far too common in the auto industry, it's almost impossible to get enough equity in your vehicle to be able to trade it in for something new.
And worse, by the time you've paid your vehicle off, it's not worth anywhere near what it would have been worth when it was five years old.
You owe it to yourself to at least consider the possibility of utilizing biweekly car payments. As a consumer, you can save a lot of money and give yourself a better chance to buy a new car sooner.
There are a lot of advantages consumers get to enjoy when using biweekly car payments. But they're not the only ones who will benefit from them.
Dealers can also take advantage of biweekly payments in a number of different ways.
One of the biggest benefits for car dealers when it comes to biweekly payments is that they're able to move more product because of them.
When people are able to pay off their vehicle more quickly, they're more likely to come back to the dealer to buy another car from them.
Studies have also shown that dealers are able to sell more products to go along with their vehicles when people decide to go with biweekly car payments.
Since people are saving money by using these types of payment plans, they're more likely to spend money on finance and insurance products and other services from dealers.
In fact, dealers report that they sell 57 percent more finance and insurance products when people choose biweekly car payment plans over standard plans.
That alone is enough to encourage many dealers to at least suggest the idea of biweekly payment plans to their customers. They know that, if people take advantage of them, they will reap some of the benefits that come along with it.
You need to make sure you won't put yourself in any financial danger by taking the biweekly payment route. A biweekly auto loan calculator can help.
Working out a biweekly payment plan with our bi weekly auto loan calculator can help you get your loan paid off quicker. You'll get to see just how much money you will save in the long run when you are making biweekly payments on your vehicle.
By doing your homework before you agree to start making biweekly payments for your vehicle, you can allow yourself to enjoy more of the benefits that come along with doing it. You can also avoid paying any more money for a car than you already have to.
Many people won't miss the extra payment they make on their vehicle by taking the biweekly approach. But there are some people who might not be able to swing it.
For homeowners, another option to finance a vehicle is through a home equity line of credit.