Enter the boat's price, your down payment, interest rate, and term to see your loan amount, monthly payment, and total interest.
The amortization math is identical to the Car Loan Calculator, but boat loans often run longer — 10 to 20 years is common versus 3 to 7 years for cars — because boats carry larger loan amounts and lenders size terms to keep monthly payments manageable. Boats also depreciate less predictably than cars, which factors into how lenders value the collateral over a longer term.
Lenders commonly ask for 10-20% down on a boat loan, similar to or slightly higher than typical auto loan requirements, with larger, older, or higher-risk vessels sometimes requiring more. A bigger down payment reduces both your monthly payment and the total interest paid over the loan's life.
Most retail boat loans use a fixed rate for the entire loan term, which keeps payments predictable and is what this calculator assumes. Variable-rate boat loans exist but are less common for personal-use vessels, and they carry the risk of payments rising if the reference rate they're tied to increases.
Yes — lenders typically reserve their best rates and longest terms for new or recent-model boats, while older or used boats often come with shorter maximum terms and higher rates, since the collateral value is less certain and boats can depreciate faster in percentage terms once past a certain age.
Worked example: a $45,000 boat with a $9,000 down payment leaves a $36,000 loan. At 7.5% APR over 10 years (120 months): monthly rate = 7.5 ÷ 12 ÷ 100 = 0.00625; payment = 36,000 × 0.00625 ÷ (1 − (1.00625)−120) ≈ $427.33 a month, totaling roughly $51,279.16 repaid — about $15,279.16 in interest over the loan.