Saturday, October 4, 2008

Car Loan vs House Loan interest rate

This may be a little bit too technical for some but definitely useful for those who really care about their money and has something to do with or going to have car loan.

In Malaysia, vehicle loan rate is calculated flat, forward sum to the future.  For example,
You borrow RM 100,000 vehicle loan for 7 years at 3%.  Your total repayment for the whole period is 100,000 x ( 1 +  7 x 0.03 ) = RM 121,000.  There are 84 months in 7 years, so every month you have to pay 121,000 / 8 = RM 1,440
Don't get confuse with this 3% car loan rate with the Fix Deposit rate, or BLR or House Loan interest rate.  Because the calculation method is different, they are not comparable to each other.

In short, in order to compare your car loan interest rate to your house loan rate, you need to convert the car loan rate into a compound rate.

Table below is a reference for such conversion.

For example, the highlighted in yelow says that.  If your Car Loan interest rate is 3% and you are taking a 3 years loan, then it is equivalent to 5.68% house loan interest rate.

My rule of thumb on this topic is :  Simply multiply car loan rate by 1.9 to convert them into a house loan interest rate.

Have fun continue to be puzzled and confused by above table ..  have a great weekend !!

The above table and figures are one of the TOP SECRET in personal finance that even most 
Bankers don't have, not to mention your financial planner, insurance or mutual fund agent.  But if they do, please let me know ...