Setting a car loan

[Mike or Penny Novack]

> • Your Payment Frequency (monthly?) monthly
> • Bank's Required Monthly Payment Amount $299.11
>
> Car was purchased on 12/22/2014.  First payment was due on 2/5/2015.
>
>>
>>> I tried to set up my car loan in Gnucash and the calculated monthly 
>>> payment
>>> doesn't match what the bank says I owe.  Gnucash says the monthly 
>>> payment
>>> should be $294.78, but the bank makes me pay $299.11.
And there you have it (the explanation you got before "sometimes the 
banks..."

HOW did you set up the program's amortization to account for the extra 
days in that first "month"? I bet you didn't. In fact, I doubt the 
programs even offered doing the calculation for 60 monthly payments 
preceded by one of 45 days.  As suggested, try increasing the loan 
principle by the interest for those extra 15 days (12/22 to /1/5). Rerun 
the program's amortization with that new amount and see if you don't 
come up with a payment closer to what the bank has.

But you STILL may need to adjust because there isn't one "right" way to 
do the amortization schedule. However that should be just a few cents 
one way or the other with the difference made up for in the final 
payment. A matter of how "rounding" is done.

Michael D Novack