Rant: Everyone swears by loan calculators but they nearly cost me 15 grand

I was refinancing my truck rig back in March at a credit union in Billings, Montana. The loan officer pulls up one of those online calculators and says I can save big by going with a 3 year term instead of 5. Sounded good on paper. But that calculator didn't factor in my irregular income from seasonal hauls. After 6 months I missed two payments because the higher monthly hit my slow months hard. The late fees and credit hit were brutal. I ended up calling the credit union direct and explaining my situation. They worked with me to switch to a 5 year term with no prepayment penalty. Now I just pay extra when I can and it works way better. Has anyone else had a loan calculator steer them wrong like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

grayc271mo ago

Ignore the income smoothing assumptions @ray_miller41, those calculators treat irregular income like a steady paycheck.

ray_miller411mo ago

Did those calculators have a crystal ball that saw your paychecks coming in late too?

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charlie_ellis18d ago

Funny you mention crystal balls. My buddy had an old TI-83 that he swore could predict when his side gigs would pay out. He'd punch in his hours and it'd spit back a date three weeks later, like it knew the client was slow. Turned out the calculator just defaulted to a 21-day cycle, but he treated that thing like a fortune teller. Got real disappointed when the actual checks showed up a month late. I think he still has it in a drawer somewhere, convinced it's cursed.