You have to pay the minimum amount of your car loan so they get their interest that month but you can pay extra on the principal in most cases. What I did was say you are paying 300 a month and your statement indicates that 200 is interest and 100 is principal, I'd designate that another 50 or 100 was for principal. If they give you payment books, I'd take out my monthly payment and then write myself a note on the last payment that I put  that amount on the last payment.  If I gave an extra 100 and the principal was 100 at that time, I'd just fold over  the last payment as that is in essence what I did.  I  hope that makes sense

Do you know how to send a private message?

Hi @Stevep0070, you're right that interest payments are higher at the beginning of the loan term due to the amortization schedule, but the actual amounts paid towards interest and principal will depend on the interest rate, principal amount financed, and loan term.  For a 6-year loan term, you would need an APR of approximately 22.7% to achieve equal payments towards interest and principal in the last payment of the 3rd year.  A lower APR will result in smaller interest payments and more of your payment going towards the principal.  Please explore the calculator below to determine how your APR will impact your repayment schedule.

https://www.amortization-calc.com/auto-car-loan-calculator/

you want to make your normal payment each month on time then within that same payment period make a principal only payment of as much as you want that will reduce how much you pay in interest by a lot while lowering you principal amount.

@Carl Also can you send me the graph?

[email address removed]

Unfortunately, no you can not.  The most common way to lower your loan balance faster is to pay your regularly scheduled payment

( principle & interest ) PLUS an additional amount on the principle, if you're financially able to do so.   Also, shop around for an auto loan which includes a lower interest rate (APR).  And remember to never miss a scheduled payment.  If it looks like you're going to miss a scheduled payment, call your lender to discuss any options they may offer.  Best Regards, me.

This is somewhat true but you can make payments toward the principle at any time as long as your loan is current. 

@Carl I made a change to the Community settings to allow Excel files as attachments, so you should be able to upload now! Let me know if it doesn't work, or if you come across any other file types you'd like to upload. 🙂

Here is the spreadsheet for anyone who needs it. It's also attached to this post.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/s/dcgfr56345/attachments/dcgfr56345/other-finance-talk/389/1/intra...

Blocks in yellow can be changed. All others are locked to prevent accidents. However, if you want to unlock those locked cells, the password is "password" without the quotation marks.