When buying a new Auto, Steer Clear of the Rule of 78s

This is one rebate auto shoppers should avoid.

Some auto lenders still use the archaic and costly "Rule of 78s" formula to calculate a rebate of finance charges when a customer pays off a loan early. This rebate is actually a sneaky prepayment penalty.

"The Rule of 78s is a historical anachronism," says David Rubinstein, vice president of the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council. "It's simply another way of padding a loan."

The Rule of 78s is a mathematical formula that was devised in the days before modern calculators. The formula was a quick way for lenders in the 1920s and 1930s to estimate payoff amounts when a customer paid ahead on an installment loan. It's still around today.

Also known as the sum-of-the-digits method, the Rule of 78s gets its name from the sum of the digits one through 12 -- the number of months in a year.

Wrong way
For a borrower looking to end an auto loan early, there isn't a worse way a lender could calculate your payoff amount. The Rule of 78s formula packs extra interest charges into the early months of a loan. Using Rule of 78s, a lender typically collects three-quarters of a loan's interest in the first half of a loan term.

There are two basic types of auto loans: simple interest loans and pre-computed loans. The Rule of 78s can only be applied to pre-computed loans that are paid ahead of schedule. To understand why this is such a lousy deal for consumers, you have to understand how a pre-computed loan works.

With a pre-computed loan, the interest owed over the life of the loan is calculated using a standard amortization table. Once you sign on the dotted line for this type of loan, you're obligated to pay back principal plus the full amount of interest that will accrue over the entire term of the loan.

To sum up, interest on a pre-computed loan is calculated in advance and you're on the hook for every penny of it when you sign.

In contrast, with a simple-interest loan you're charged interest each day based on the balance you owe. So the quicker you pay down your balance the less interest you pay. A simple interest loan with no prepayment penalties rewards customers who pay ahead.

Pay ahead with a pre-computed loan that applies the "Rule of 78s" method to prepayments and you'll be slammed with a penalty, disguised as a rebate.

Caution: Interest padding ahead
Let's say you're ready to pay off your 48-month auto loan a year early. Because you signed on for a pre-computed loan, you're on the hook for 48 months worth of interest even though you're paying off the loan in 36 months.

But your lender is going to do you a "favor." You don't have to pay 48 months worth of interest. Instead, he's going to determine your payout amount including a "rebate" for those 12 months worth of finance charges you won't have to pay.

But your payout amount won't be what you deserve. The reason? Using the "Rule of 78s" method, your lender applies more of your previous payments toward interest and less of your previous payments toward principal.

Since less is applied toward principal, the amount you owe will be higher than expected. The earlier you try to pay off one of these loans the more you'll have to pay. The higher the interest rate, the more that payoff amount is going to hurt.

"If it had overcharged the lender and undercharged the consumer, it would have disappeared decades ago," says Jean Ann Fox, director of consumer protection for Consumer Federation of America.

"It's a dirty little secret."

Turning on the warning lights In 1992, the U.S. Congress outlawed the use of the "Rule of 78s" formula in closed-end loans longer than 61 months. "It just gets very egregious with a longer-term loan," says Elizabeth Renuart, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. States outlawing use of the Rule of 78s formula in installment loans of five years and less: Arizona Michigan Delaware Minnesota Idaho Nebraska Iowa Nevada Kansas New Hampshire Maine New York Maryland Oregon Massachusetts South Dakota Vermont Source: CARLAW, a monthly legal reporting service for legal compliance specialists in the automobile industry. Whether a lender can apply the "Rule of 78s" method to installment loans of five years or less is a matter of state law. Currently, 17 states prohibit the practice. Earlier last year, U.S. Rep. John LaFalce, D-N.Y., introduced a bill (H.R. 1054) that would eliminate the use of the Rule of 78s formula in credit transactions. Fortunately for consumers, simple interest loans are now the norm in the auto financing business. The vast majority of auto lenders do not use pre-computed auto loans and they do not use the Rule of 78s method to calculate prepayments. "The Rule of 78s as it applies to installment auto sales is a relic of the past," says David Robertson, executive director of the Association of Finance and Insurance Professionals. "In today's mainstream market, that would be an absolute rarity." The pre-computed Rule of 78s auto loans that do exist today tend to be found in the subprime market. Folks with less-than-perfect credit should be on the lookout. "Buy here, pay here" auto lots and lenders that specialize in offering loans to borrowers with badly damaged credit may offer these consumer-unfriendly loans. "All the ones I've seen have had really high interest rates," says Mark Eskeldson, an auto expert and author of CarInfo.com, a consumer information and advocacy Web site. "If a car dealer is trying to put you into a rule of 78s loan it's fairly safe to assume that the dealer has packed your interest rate -- he's inflated it."