AC's Auto Loan Plugin

A Free Calculator for WordPress Websites and Blogs

Updated November 2024 v1.5.4.2

Enter a "0" (zero) for one unknown value above.

  Original Size  

 

Paste these shortcodes in the page's content editor for above result:
[fcautoloanplugin sc_size="large" sc_custom_style="No" sc_add_link="yes" sc_brand_name="Your Brand Name Here" sc_hide_resize="No" sc_price="35500.0" sc_dwn_pmt="5500.0" sc_loan_amt="0.0" sc_n_months="60" sc_rate="5.5" sc_currency="71" sc_date_mask="2"]

This plugin is also available for download at WordPress.org

The FC Auto Loan Calculator calculates the monthly payment as well as the affordable car price, down payment required or the loan amount. It will create a detailed amortization schedule showing date based payments as well as a set of colorful charts. A site's users can select their own currency and date convention used in loan schedule. Ideal if site attracts visitors from around the globe. Four predefined sizes or modify CSS file to customize size and colors. Supports touch and a responsive designed website. Auto Loan Plugin Calculator is based on and uses the code from my Auto Loan Calculator.

Rebranding with your site's brand name is supported and encouraged.

The plugin may be

  1. used in a post or page's content area via a shortcode; or
  2. used in a sidebar widget area; or
  3. called from any template file.

Installation

  1. Either
    1. upload the fc-auto-loan-calculator folder with all its files to the /wp-content/plugins/; or
    2. unzip the plugin's zip file in the /wp-content/plugins/  folder.
  2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins Installed Plugins menu in WordPress

Upgrading: If you've translated the plugin from English to another language, please backup your work prior to upgrading the plugin.

Usage

There are 3 mutually exclusive ways you can deploy the calculator to an individual page (though you can use all three methods on different pages within a site):

  1. Add the shortcode [fcautoloanplugin] in the content area of your page or post and configure shortcode parameters.
  2. Add the following code to your template where you want the calculator to appear.
    • <?php show_fcautoloan_plugin(); ?>
  3. If you are using widgets, just add the plugin to the sidebar through the Appearance Widgets menu in WordPress. Be sure to click Save.

Shortcode parameters

  • sc_size= "tiny" | "small" | "medium" | "large"
  • sc_custom_style= "No" | "Yes"
  • sc_add_link= "Yes" | "No"
  • sc_brand_name=
  • sc_hide_resize= "No" | "Yes"
  • sc_price=
  • sc_dwn_pmt=
  • sc_loan_amt=
  • sc_n_months=
  • sc_rate=
  • sc_currency=
  • sc_date_mask=

Shortcode Examples:

Copy and paste to page's or post's content area.

First example includes all options.

[fcautoloanplugin sc_size= "tiny" sc_custom_style= "No" sc_add_link= "Yes" sc_brand_name= "Best's Auto" sc_hide_resize= "Yes" sc_price= "36000.0" sc_dwn_pmt= "2500.0" sc_loan_amt= "0" sc_n_months= "60" sc_rate= "5.5" sc_currency="83" sc_date_mask="2"]
[fcautoloanplugin sc_size="small" sc_custom_style="Yes" sc_hide_resize="Yes" sc_currency="83" sc_date_mask="2"]
[fcautoloanplugin sc_custom_style="No" sc_add_link="Yes" sc_brand_name="Friendly Mortgage" sc_hide_resize="Yes" sc_price="0.0" sc_dwn_pmt="5000.0" sc_loan_amt="30000" sc_n_months="60" sc_rate="5.5"]

Optional array parameter passed to
show_fcautoloan_plugin()

This can be copied and pasted to a template part.

Valid values for options are the same as the shortcode above.

<?php show_fcautoloan_plugin(array( 'op_size' => "medium", 'op_custom_style' => "No", 'op_add_link' => "Yes", 'op_brand_name' => "Green Valley Auto Dealers", 'op_hide_resize' => "No", 'op_price' => "35000.0", 'op_dwn_pmt' => "1500.0", 'op_loan_amt' => "0.0", 'op_n_months' => "60", 'op_rate' => "5.5", 'op_currency' => "999", 'op_date_mask' => "999")); ?>
Notes:
  1. When setting default values for the calculator (price, down payment, loan amount), one should be set to "0" so when the user clicks the "Calc" button, there will be an unknown value to calculate.
  2. If you want to add your brand to the calculator, the add link option must be set to "Yes".
  3. When branding, your brand name will be added before "Auto Loan Calculator".
  4. If custom style is set to "Yes", the plugin will load fin-calc-widgets-custom.css located in the plugin's CSS folder. If you set the option to "Yes" without making any changes, the calculator will change to a horrendous red which indicates the custom css is being used.
  5. The plugin is built and tested on HTML5/CSS3 pages.
  6. max-width: large: 440px, medium: 340px, small: 290px, tiny: 150px
  7. The modal dialog that allows users to select a default currency and date format is NOT compatible with some other dialogs. If you have a modal on the webpage you want to install this calculator on, either your modal or the calculator's modal may not work. You'll need to test this.
  8. New: Website developers can set a default currency sign and preferred date format by setting <op /sc>_currency and <op /sc>_date_mask respectively. Set one or both to an integer value. For the list of integers to support 90 plus currency symbols and 6 date format options, see the file currency_and_date_conventions.txt in the plugin's root folder. (example: India, Indian Rupee: ₹1,23,45,678.99 = 83)
Enhanced Internationalization

New: Support for over 90 currency signs (using appropriate nummber formatting conventions) and 6 date formats (mm/dd/yyyy, dd/mm/yyyy, yyyy.mm.dd etc.). If neither the website developer or the user makes a selection, the calculator will read the browser's default currency and date options and automatically use them. Without doing anything, a website visitor from Japan visiting a website hosted in France will initially see a floating yen sign. The website developer can easily override this default behavior by setting either shortcodes or function options. The user (if the website designer keeps the feature enabled) can override both and select a currency and date format.

To summarize, the plugin determines what currency symbol (and date format) to use by applying the following rules:
  1. If a website allows a user to select a symbol, and the user makes a selection, the plugin uses the visitor's choice first.
  2. Otherwise, if a user has not made a selection, and the website owner has set a default currency (i.e., currency does not equal 999), the calculator uses the website's selection.
  3. Otherwise, the calculator plugin will attempt to read the browser's currency default and pick a currency symbol.
  4. Otherwise, the plugin defaults to using the '$' symbol.
Language Translations

New in v1.5, support for 14 languages in addition to English. The plugin also includes a translation template file (.POT) in the "languages" folder. Using a POT/PO file editor, website owners can translate this plugin to any language supported by WordPress.

The supported languages are:

  • da : Danish : Dansk
  • nl : Dutch : Nederlandse
  • fi : Finnish : Suomalainen
  • fr : French : Français
  • de : German : Deutsch
  • hu : Hungarian : Magyar
  • it : Italian : Italiano
  • lt : Lithuanian : Lietuvių
  • pl : Polish : Polski
  • pt : Portuguese : Português
  • ro : Romanian : Românesc
  • ru : Russian : Русский
  • es : Spanish : Español
  • sv : Swedish : Svenska

Notes: (1) The plugin depends on the site's "Site Language" setting to display to your visitors the correct language. The files in the language folder can be renamed if needed. For example, if you want the plug to display in Portuguese the .MO and .JSON files include assume your site's language setting is Portuguese (Portugal) which is local pt_PT. But if your site is in Brazil, you'll need to rename the plugin's language files to use pt_BR. (2) At this time, these translations were computer generated. A fluent speaker can edit the included .PO file and regenerate the .MO file to update the tranlation. (3) If you are willing to allow me to include your edits with the plugin, I'll regenerate the .MO, and if needed the .JSON files for you.

I am making the other calculators available free-of-charge to bloggers who are able to help with translation. See this page for details.

Screenshots

auto loan calculator plugin for WordPress
Two of the predefined screen sizes showing relative difference between "large" and "tiny".
auto loan amortization schedule
Example loan schedule with detailed header and payment due dates.
auto loan charts
Creates three charts for visualization.
WordPress option page for car loan calculator plugin
Configuration screen in WordPress's admin area
(only for when installing in a sidebar area).

Need Support?

I'm happy to offer support for all my plugins. If you have a question or face an issue, please go to the WordPress plugin's support forum and leave your question.

Please specify if you are using the original plugin or the "Plus" plugin. Also, if possible, please provide a link to a page where you have installed the plugin. Providing a link to the page where the issue occurs may help me to resolve it faster.

13 Comments on “Auto Loan Plugin”

Join the conversation. Tell me what you think.
  • Hi Karl,

    Sorry I asked this question under the wrong area earlier.

    Is there an easy way to switch off certain fields in this plugin for WordPress? ‘Points’ is not relevant to anyone in Australia so can’t use the calculator with it in there… will confuse the user.

    Thanks

    Chris

    • Hi Chris, as with all WP Plugins that are available on the WordPress site (which this one is) they must come with full source code. There are a couple of ways a developer could hide the points input. One way would be to enter a style rule in the CSS file to hide it. There are other ways as well. But the calculator itself does not support a feature for the site’s owner to hide it.

  • Hi.
    I have the calculator on my site but if I set the currency to EUR (43) it multiplies every field with 10, making the interest rate huge (55% if we’re talking the default values)

    Could it be a bug or am I missing something?
    Tried both the whole example shortcode with the currency modification and the blank one too without parameters to no success.

    Thank you

    • Something else must be going on. Setting the currency would not cause the problem you are describing. Are you saying the calculator works with dollars, for example, and not Euros?

      Can I access the calculator on the site? If so, do you have a link you can provide? I’ll take a look.

      • Exactly. Dollars seem to work, I encounter this issue with Euros.
        Can you leave me your email address here or send it to the mail I completed this form with?

        I’ll gladly share site access to you in private.
        Thank you

      • Just now I realise you want frontend first, apologies.

        https://mobilecars.neodesign.ro/test-calculator/

        • I see what you mean.

          I know what the problem is. It’s not that there’s an issue with the Euro currency per se. The problem is with the "," being used as the decimal separator.

          I guess you are still in development? The workaround, for now, is to pick one of the Euro currencies that uses the period as the decimal separator. That seems to work.

          I’ll try to get a fix out within a week. I’m sorry for this problem. I’m not sure how that happened.

          • Thank you, Karl.
            It worked switching to another Euro based code.

            Are you available for customizing this plugin a bit further?
            If you can give me an email where I could reach out to you for paid work, please let me know.

            Thank you!

          • Actually, I just finished fixing the bug you pointed out. Please try v1.5.2. It’s available on WordPress site here:

            FC Auto Loan Calculator

            (I’ve not updated the file on my site yet to include the fix.)

            When you update, make sure you have a backup of your translation files. I’m not sure yet if the WordPress update process will overwrite custom translations or not.

            I’ll send you a private email about the other, or you can reach me anytime via the contact link at the bottom of the page.

  • Hi Karl,

    Are you able to add fields and remove fields? I need a field for a “Balloon Payment”. The balloon payment is a percentage amount that gets deducted from the total price before interest which brings your premium down but you then need to pay the full ballon amount at the end of your term.

    Is it possible to add this to the form?

    Kind regards

    • Do you mean the website owner or literally me as the plugin’s developer? I can, of course. That would require us to agree on the scope of a custom project and the cost. (Can be expensive)

      If you mean the website developer, yes, the developer can add a field (or remove them). All the plugin’s source code comes with it. The developer would have to study it and make the necessary changes. It is way beyond the scope of my free support to discuss the source code.

Comments are closed.