10 Day Payoff Calculator

What a 10 day payoff is

A 10 day payoff is a payoff quote that stays good for ten days. You ask the lender for the precise amount that closes the loan, the lender answers with a figure and a good through date, and as long as the money arrives inside that window the quote satisfies the loan in full. Most lenders issue these through online banking in minutes, and the window is what makes it worth having: the buyer of your car, a refinancing lender or an insurance company can act on the number without it moving under them.

The quote is never the same as the balance on your monthly statement. The CFPB explains that a payoff amount includes interest due through the day you intend to pay, plus any fees still outstanding, which is why it runs higher than the statement figure. On a simple interest auto loan the gap is per diem interest, the charge that builds continuously on what you still owe.

The per diem formula, and where 365 and 360 come from

Per diem is daily interest: the balance times the annual rate, divided by the number of days the contract uses for a year. On a 365 day basis the daily rate is 1/365 of the APR, and on a 360 day basis it is 1/360, which is a bigger daily charge from the same headline rate. The calculator computes both so you can tell which one your lender uses against the payoff statement.

Both conventions appear in regulation. Regulation DD, 12 CFR 1030.7 (CFPB) requires a daily rate of at least 1/365 of the interest rate on deposit accounts, allows 1/366 in a leap year, and its commentary permits a 1/360 daily rate if it is applied 365 days a year. For credit, the official commentary to Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.17 (CFPB) acknowledges that creditors may run calculations on a 360 day year while collecting interest at 1/365 of the annual rate across 365 days. The contract, not the calculator, decides which basis your lender uses, and the payoff statement shows the outcome.

Per diem on a 365 day basis, rounded to the cent. A 360 day basis raises each figure by about 1.4 percent.

Worked example: $18,500 at 6.9 percent APR

Start with the opening numbers: a balance of $18,500 at 6.9 percent APR, quoted on November 5, 2026 with a payoff date of November 15. On a 365 day basis the per diem is $3.50, because 18,500 x 6.9% / 365 = 3.4973. Ten days of that is $34.97, so the payoff total is $18,534.97, and paying today instead would have kept $34.97 in your pocket.

Interest per $10,000 of balance at this rate is $1.89 a day, which is a quick way to sanity check any quote: multiply the daily figure by the number of days left and the totals should line up. The example uses a midsize balance and a midsize rate. A cheap loan on a big balance and an expensive loan on a small one can end up with similar ten day costs, which is the point of the next set of numbers.

Why the window is ten days

The ten day span exists because payoff money rarely arrives the day it is promised. A buyer's check has to clear, a refinancing lender wires funds on its own closing timetable, and the payoff statement has to pin one date for all of that. Bank of America's auto loan FAQ describes its own 10 day payoff quote as showing the payment information, the projected payoff amount and the payoff good through date, and it is one of many lenders that issue them on request through online banking.

The shape of the document is typical in the industry. A payoff statement posted in a federal regulatory docket shows the pattern line by line: a 10 day payoff amount, a per diem figure and a good through date, followed by the lender's instructions for certified funds and lien release (sample 10 day payoff statement, Capital One Auto Finance, 2025). The borrower in that example owed $5,849.05 with a per diem of $3.41, the same structure as the example above at a different scale.

Ten days is usually enough to absorb mailing and processing, but it is a deadline, not a courtesy. If the closing slips past the good through date, the lender recomputes the payoff with more per diem days, and a fresh quote becomes necessary if fees changed in the meantime.

365 versus 360: the basis changes the charge

The day count basis sounds like an accounting detail until you tally it. Dividing the same APR by 360 instead of 365 raises the daily rate by 365/360 = 1.0139, so the year costs about 1.39 percent more interest on the same balance and rate. On the $18,500 example that is $17.73 more over a full year, and $0.49 more across a ten day window. It will not decide the deal, but it explains why two payoff statements for the same loan can disagree by small amounts.

Which basis governs your loan is fixed in the contract, and consumer auto loans on a 365 day basis are the norm. Commercial paper and some older contracts use 360. When a payoff statement and your own arithmetic differ by around 1.4 percent of the interest, the basis is the first place to check.

Who asks for the quote, and when

Three situations call for a 10 day payoff, and the timing differs in each.

In a sale, the payoff quote tells you what the transaction puts in your pocket: offer minus payoff, not offer minus statement balance. In a refinancing, the new lender wants the quote close to the settlement date because it is paying per diem for every day between the two. In a total loss, the insurer pays actual cash value, and if that comes up short of the payoff the gap comes out of your pocket unless gap protection picks it up. Requesting the quote early in every situation is free and removes the most common surprise at the closing table.

When the quote runs out

An expired quote is not a penalty, it is arithmetic resuming. Once the good through date is behind you, interest continues to accrue at the per diem rate, so the lender recomputes the total with more days. Five extra days on the $18,500 example costs $17.49, thirty extra days costs $104.92. If a fee was assessed in the meantime, or a payment posted, the principal itself moves and a fresh quote is the only safe document.

One more wrinkle changes the arithmetic on some loans: how interest was set up in the first place. The CFPB distinguishes simple interest from precomputed interest on auto loans. Simple interest accrues daily on the outstanding balance, so the payoff is balance plus per diem, which is what this page models. A precomputed loan adds all the interest up front and spreads it through the payments, so the payoff depends on how much unearned interest the contract rebates, and the figure can sit above or below the simple interest figure. The payoff statement, not a rule of thumb, settles it.

Checklist before you send the money

Run down this list before the payoff leaves your account, because fixing any of these after the fact is a slog.

Compare the good through date with your payment date. If the check needs three days to arrive and two to post, ask whether the ten day window still holds, or request an updated quote.

Send it the way the statement says. Lenders often require certified funds or a wire for payoffs, and the lien release clock usually starts when good funds turn up, not when you mailed the check.

Check the fees. Late charges, a payoff statement fee or ancillary products still owed can sit on the account and will be inside the total.

Save the confirmation and the paid in full letter. Bank of America places lien release at 10 to 12 business days after payoff, with the title or electronic release to follow, and other lenders run on similar timelines. If the title does not turn up within a month, the confirmation is what you take to the lender and the motor vehicle agency.

Nothing here replaces the lender's own statement. This screen is for valuing the window, arguing with a quote that seems wrong, and deciding how much a delay costs. The number you send is the one on the payoff statement.