Skip to main content

Car finance calculator UK

This calculator works out an example monthly payment, total interest and total amount payable on a car loan from the price, deposit, term and APR. Hire purchase repays in the same equal instalments and PCP adds an optional final payment, so each has its own calculator.

An example, not a quote — Autoza is not a lender or broker.

Car loan calculator: your monthly payment

Enter the cash price, deposit, term and APR to see what a car loan costs each month. For hire purchase, which can add an option-to-purchase fee, use the hire purchase calculator; for a final payment (GMFV) use the PCP calculator.

Your figures

£
£3,000£100,000
£
£0£15,000
mo
12 mo84 mo

48 months (4 years)

%
0%50%

Starts at 12% as an example, not a rate on offer: it is the average APR on hire purchase for used vehicles in the FCA’s survey of lenders’ 2023 agreements (CP25/27 Technical Annex 2, 7 October 2025). Your rate depends on your credit history, the product and the term. Only a lender can quote you a real one.

Repayment schedule, first 6 months

First six monthly payments split into capital and interest
MonthPaymentCapitalInterestBalance
1£312.40£198.53£113.87£11,801.47
2£312.40£200.42£111.98£11,601.05
3£312.40£202.32£110.08£11,398.73
4£312.40£204.24£108.16£11,194.49
5£312.40£206.18£106.22£10,988.31
6£312.40£208.13£104.27£10,780.18

Example monthly repayment

£312.40

for 48 months at 12% APR, with a £3,000 deposit

An example, not a quote — Autoza is not a lender or broker.

Summary

Cash price
£15,000
Deposit
− £3,000
Amount of credit
£12,000
Total interest
+ £2,995.20
Total of the monthly payments
£14,995.20
Total amount payable (including deposit)
£17,995.20

What changes the total

  • A bigger deposit means less credit, so less interest.
  • A longer term lowers the monthly payment and raises the total interest.
  • The total amount payable, not the monthly payment, is the figure to compare between quotes.

Browse cars priced around £15,000

Used cars listed by dealers on Autoza, by cash price.

Browse cars in this price range

Example monthly repayment

£312.40

48 months at 12% APR, not a quote

Which way are you paying for the car?

Personal loan

Equal monthly payments. You buy the car outright, so it is yours from the start.

Car loan calculator

Hire purchase (HP)

Equal monthly payments. Yours once the last payment and any option-to-purchase fee are paid.

Hire purchase calculator

PCP

Lower monthly payments, plus an optional final payment (GMFV) if you want to keep the car.

PCP calculator

Choosing between them? Read the PCP vs HP vs personal loan guide.

Paying a car loan off early

A regulated agreement can be paid off at any time, with a rebate of interest. On a fixed-rate agreement the lender may also claim up to 1% of the amount repaid early (0.5% if a year or less was left) when more than £8,000 is repaid in a 12-month period, and never more than the interest it would have earned (s.95A).

Sources, read 5 October 2026: Consumer Credit Act 1974, section 94 (right to complete payments ahead of time); Consumer Credit Act 1974, section 95A (compensation for early settlement).

How these figures are worked out

The APR is converted to a true monthly rate, not divided by 12.

monthly rate = (1 + APR)^(1/12) − 1

An APR is an effective annual rate, so the monthly rate it implies is the twelfth root of (1 + APR) minus one. Dividing the APR by 12 instead gives a nominal rate that overstates the monthly charge: on £18,000 over 48 months at 12% APR the two methods differ by about £5 a month. This calculator uses the effective rate, which is how the FCA’s APR rules define an APR.

Payments are rounded to the penny. A lender’s own schedule can differ from these figures by a few pence a month from rounding, and by more where its agreement sets fees, payment dates or a final payment due a month after the last instalment, so these figures do not reproduce a lender’s quote. FCA Handbook, CONC App 1.2.6R (read 5 October 2026).

Getting a car finance quote

Autoza cannot give you a quote. It is not a lender or a broker, and every figure on this page is an example worked out from the numbers you type. A quote comes from a lender or an authorised broker, who assesses your circumstances and sets the APR.

Before you sign a regulated agreement you must be given pre-contract information that shows, among other things, the APR, the total amount of credit, the number and amount of the repayments and the total amount payable (Consumer Credit (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2010, Schedule 1, read 5 October 2026). That is the checklist for comparing quotes: the same price, deposit and term, then the APR and the total amount payable. To test a quote against the maths, put its price, deposit, term and APR into the car loan calculator above, or into the PCP calculator if it has a final payment. Small differences are normal (rounding, fees and payment dates); a large one is worth asking the lender to explain.

How much will a lender actually lend?

That depends on the lender’s own affordability assessment and credit scoring, and each lender runs its own. The FCA’s rules require a lender to make a reasonable assessment of whether you can afford the repayments, taking account of your income and your essential spending (CONC 5.2A, read 5 October 2026), and that section sets no fixed ratio of income to debt. So a calculator can work out a payment from the figures you give it, but it cannot tell you a borrowing limit.

What you can do is work the other way round, which is more useful anyway: decide what the car costs you to keep, then see what is left. Our car running cost calculator prices vehicle tax, fuel or charging, the MOT, insurance and servicing for a specific car, and the finance payment sits on top of that figure rather than instead of it. A payment you can meet in month one and not in month eight is the failure mode worth avoiding.

What moves the rate you are offered

The lender, the product, the term, the deposit, the age of the car and your credit file all change it, and two lenders can quote materially different rates on the same car on the same day. For context rather than as an offer, the FCA reported an average APR of 12% on hire purchase for used vehicles in its survey of lenders’ 2023 agreements (CP25/27 Technical Annex 2, 7 October 2025). That is an average across the FCA’s own dataset, not a rate on offer.

The dealer arranging your finance is usually a credit broker rather than the lender, and that distinction used to matter more than it should have: who sets the APR on car finance covers what the FCA banned in January 2021 and what it means for the rate you see now.

Before you sign, and after

Compare the APR and the total amount payable, both of which a regulated agreement must disclose before you sign. A longer term lowers the monthly payment while raising what the car costs you overall, so the monthly figure is the one number that most reliably misleads.

If you need out part-way, you have a statutory right to end a regulated hire purchase or PCP agreement early — handing a car back on finance explains what it costs and why the halfway point usually falls later than halfway. And if you are buying privately, a car that still has finance on it is the risk worth checking for first.

Autoza is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and does not give financial advice. This page explains how UK car finance works and what the rules require. Any figures for your own agreement come from the lender that offers it.

Sources

Each was fetched and read on 5 October 2026. Autoza is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and does not give financial advice; An example, not a quote — Autoza is not a lender or broker.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a car finance calculator work out?
This calculator works out an example monthly payment, total interest and total amount payable on a car loan from the price, deposit, term and APR. Hire purchase repays in the same equal instalments and PCP adds an optional final payment, so each has its own calculator.
How much interest will I pay on a car loan?
Interest is charged each month on the balance still owed, so each payment repays a little more capital than the one before. In this page’s example, a £15,000 car with a £3,000 deposit borrows £12,000 over 48 months at 12% APR. That costs £312.40 a month and £2,995.20 in interest, so the total amount payable is £17,995.20 including the deposit. Change the term or the APR and the figure changes: a longer term lowers the monthly payment but raises the total interest.
Can I get a car finance quote from this calculator?
No. Autoza is not a lender or broker, so every figure here is an example worked out from the numbers you type, not an offer. A quote comes from a lender or an authorised broker, who assesses your circumstances and sets the APR. Before you sign a regulated agreement you must be given pre-contract information that shows the APR and the total amount payable, so compare those two figures between quotes rather than the monthly payment alone.
Does this calculator work out PCP payments?
No. It works out equal monthly payments, which is the shape of a personal loan or a plain hire purchase agreement. A PCP also has an optional final payment, and this calculator has no field for one. The PCP calculator takes the final payment (GMFV) and shows what it does to the monthly payment, the total amount payable and what handing the car back could cost.
How does this calculator turn an APR into a monthly payment?
The APR is converted to a true monthly rate, not divided by 12. It works as monthly rate = (1 + APR)^(1/12) − 1, then applies the standard repayment formula to the amount of credit over the term. An APR is an effective annual rate, so the monthly rate it implies is the twelfth root of (1 + APR) minus one. Dividing the APR by 12 instead gives a nominal rate that overstates the monthly charge: on £18,000 over 48 months at 12% APR the two methods differ by about £5 a month. This calculator uses the effective rate, which is how the FCA’s APR rules define an APR. Payments are rounded to the penny. A lender’s own schedule can differ from these figures by a few pence a month from rounding, and by more where its agreement sets fees, payment dates or a final payment due a month after the last instalment, so these figures do not reproduce a lender’s quote.
What is the typical APR for a car loan in the UK in 2026?
No single APR is typical for everyone: the rate you are offered depends on the lender, the type of agreement, the size of your deposit, the term, the age of the car and your credit profile, and the same car can carry very different rates from different lenders on the same day. For context, the FCA reported an average APR of 12% on hire purchase for used vehicles in its survey of lenders’ 2023 agreements (CP25/27 Technical Annex 2, 7 October 2025). That is an average across the FCA’s own dataset, not a rate on offer, and it describes hire purchase rather than a personal loan. Compare the total amount payable rather than the monthly payment, because a longer term lowers the monthly figure while raising what the car costs you overall. Every regulated agreement must show you the APR and the total amount payable before you sign, so the only rate that matters is the one on your own quote.
Can I pay a car loan off early?
A regulated agreement can be paid off at any time, with a rebate of interest. On a fixed-rate agreement the lender may also claim up to 1% of the amount repaid early (0.5% if a year or less was left) when more than £8,000 is repaid in a 12-month period, and never more than the interest it would have earned (s.95A).
Does using this calculator affect my credit score?
No. The sums run in your browser on the figures you type. Autoza is not a lender or broker and carries out no credit check, so nothing here can touch your credit file.

Related reading