Here's the situation:

(in '08) 72 month auto loan for $17,919 @ 8.94% APR...$5,384 total finance charges

24 payments made ($323.00 ea) and $3,190 of the $5,384 finance charge is paid

48 payments to go and $2,194 is left in finance charges...$13,341 is left for principal

Is it worth trying to refinance when i've already paid off over half of the finance charges and only made 1/4 of the payments?

I feel like such a sucker

eta - I gotta log off, will check back later

This post was edited on 5/5/10 at 2:50 pm

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Posted by LSU1018

Baton Rouge

Member since Feb 2007

7215 posts

Posted on 5/5/10 at 3:07 pm to DropaDeuce

How is your credit? What is the balance on the loan as of today? Can you afford to put any more down than what the current payment is?

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Posted by MikeBRLA

Baton Rouge

Member since Jun 2005

16448 posts

Posted on 5/5/10 at 3:40 pm to DropaDeuce

quote:
Is it worth trying to refinance when i've already paid off over half of the finance charges and only made 1/4 of the payments?

This is a sunk cost and should have ZERO impact when you are analyzing this.

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Posted by rtbtiger

Member since Jan 2009

842 posts

Posted on 5/5/10 at 4:08 pm to DropaDeuce

I'm assuming that you want to refinance at a higher payment for a shorter term? Probably better off just paying twice the note each month and payoff early if you can. That way you can avoid further loan fees. If you can't afford a higher monthly payment then it may be worth it to try to refinance at a lower rate depending on what your credit rating is as the previous poster inquired about.

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Posted by LSU1018

Baton Rouge

Member since Feb 2007

7215 posts

Posted on 5/5/10 at 4:29 pm to rtbtiger

The other big issue is how old the vehicle is. The older the vehicle the higher the interest rate on the loan