The car lease calculator is a great way to figure out your borrowing power before finalising a car loan. It's also a simple and fast way to work out how to manage your current car loan. It can help you decide on the proper repayment frequency for you and also help you decide whether or not you'll want to choose a residual/balloon payment.
If you're looking to purchase a vehicle through a financier you can use the car lease calculator first to see what you can expect to make in repayments. You can also use the car lease calculator to compare loan providers in order to get the best deal possible.
How to use the car lease calculator
The car lease calculator is quick and simple to use. All you have to do is enter information from your potential or current lease/loan and you’ll get your repayment amount. To properly use the calculator you’ll need the total lease amount, the lease term, the interest rate and the repayment frequency.
If you’ve decided to have a residual or balloon payment on the back end of your car lease, you’ll also need to enter that amount into the calculator. If you didn’t choose a residual or balloon payment you can leave that blank and it won’t affect the calculations. The final calculation will be accurate as long as the information you enter is accurate.
The purchase price refers to the value of the car you want to lease, which will be the total of how much you need to pay back.
The leasing term refers to how long you'd like to spread the repayments out over. You can change this to see how shorter or longer leases impact the repayment amounts.
The interest rate is the percentage of interest the lease company is charging. Many leases don't come with interest, there will be other costs instead. You can put this field as 0% if that's the case.
Residual or balloon payments are lump sums that are owed once the loan term is over. Choosing a residual payment will reduce your monthly/weekly/fortnightly repayments but you will need to have enough money to pay a lump sum at the end of the term.
Let's say you wanted to lease a car with a value of $80,000. You're happy to make a residual repayment of $20,000, but you need to make instalments to pay the rest.
You'd enter $80,000 into the purchase price field of the calculator and $20,000 into the residual field.
Because you're opting for a lease, you can put 0% in the interest rate field.
You'd like to see how much repayments would be if you paid over 2 years, so you enter 24 into the leasing term field.
Monthly repayments come out as $2,500 a month. Maybe that feels a little steep for you, so you enter 36 into the leasing term field instead. Your monthly repayments are now $1,666.67.
With this information you can begin a leasing arrangement knowing exactly the terms you'd like to set.
What is car leasing?
Leasing a car can be a good option for people who don't want to commit to buying a car but need more access than renting can give. You get access to a vehicle for an agreed period, which can be for personal or business use, or a combination of the two. You will generally make regular payments over the course of the lease and may have the option to buy the car or start leasing a new vehicle at the end of the lease term.
Some employers offer car leasing as a form of salary sacrifice. This is called novated leasing. You can choose between a few different types, but generally you'll have the option of maintained or non-maintained novated leasing.
Frequently asked questions about car lease calculator
No, the calculator only provides you with an estimate of your borrowing power based on the figures you enter. The bank or lender still has the final decision about how much you can borrow and at what rate.
The calculator uses sound mathematics to come up with the results based on the information you enter. As long as the information you enter is accurate the result will be accurate. If you only use approximations in the calculator your final result will only be an estimate.
No, you don’t need to provide personal information like your name or address. You only need the loan information (the loan amount, the term, the interest rate, the residual amount if applicable, and the repayment frequency).
Rebecca Pike is Finder’s senior money writer, with over 10 years of experience in mortgages and personal finance. A frequent TV and radio commentator, she frequently appears on Sunrise, A Current Affair, 9News, and Sky News, and contributes expert analysis to publications like Yahoo Finance and The Latch. Rebecca previously served as Editor of Mortgage Professional Australia. She has a Master’s degree in Journalism as well as ASIC-recognised certifications in Tier 1 Generic Knowledge and Tier 2 General Advice Deposit Products, which comply with ASIC guidelines. See full bio
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Rebecca has written 207 Finder guides across topics including:
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