Recently we began looking at a new 5'er and didn't not have the $20,000. downpayment the dealer told us we needed. We have a 2006 5'er to trade and know that we are upsidedown, but thought we'd try regardless. Needless to say, we will not trade yet, maybe next year?
Anyhow, we have GE Moneybank as our lender. On the bill this company shows the balance due and it is the correct payoff. We've had many cars, trucks, homes and RV's over the years and always when we telephoned the lender, we were given a payoff figure considerably lower than the loan payoff if we waited over time. This company doesn't give a break for paying off early. I had a hard time believeing this, but it's true.
What is your experience?

We used to be caught up in the culture of trade often and go ahead and trade even if you still owe a balance, and, in your situation of being upside down, even worse. No more. When we do those things we are just delaying payment on something we really can't afford. We have gone debt free and plan to stay that way. So, we will hang on to our used 10 year old 5th wheel a few more years and figure out a way to replace it with no loan with another used unit in the $10,000 range. Same, with our 10 yr old truck with 175,000 miles. Sorry, for the soapbox and not answering your question. It's just that we don't have to worry about those issues any more.

Well, good for y'all, Serengeti and OLDDMGY! You should, however, remember that not everyone is as lucky to be able to have planned so well and/or to not have had things happen to screw up their plans! I'm sure y'all probably didn't intend to sound so "preachy", but that's how it came across.

ingsky, as for your original question, my son encountered much the same thing on a car finance deal he had. We then found out that the reason was that he had made the deal through a less-than-prime lender, and upon reading the "fine print", we discovered that they get all of the interest whether or not you pay off the principal amount early. Apparently, it's legal... even though unorthodox. They do this by declaring it a "finance charge" instead of interest.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate your opinions, experience and advice.