Debt Payoff Calculator

Avalanche (highest interest rate first) always costs the least: every spare unit of money cancels the most expensive debt available, so total interest is mathematically minimal. Snowball (smallest balance first) closes accounts sooner, and a study of real borrowers (Gal and McShane, 2012) found that closing individual accounts predicts successfully getting out of debt, which is the behavioral case for it. The honest answer is that the cheapest plan only wins if you follow it to the end. Run both in the calculator: if the interest difference is small, pick the order that keeps you motivated; if it is large, the avalanche saving has a concrete price tag you can weigh.

Use the minimum from each debt's latest statement or contract. Fixed loans (car loans, personal loans) have a constant installment, so enter it as a fixed amount. Many credit cards instead require a percentage of the current balance, typically 2 to 3 percent, with a small floor; for those, switch the minimum type to percent of balance and enter both numbers from your statement. The distinction matters: a percentage minimum shrinks as the balance falls, which stretches the payoff and is the reason minimum-only card payments last for decades.

Because both plans spend exactly the same budget every month, the payoff date is driven almost entirely by how much you pay, not by the order you pay it in. The order changes how much interest accrues along the way, so avalanche usually finishes with less money spent and occasionally a month or two earlier, but it cannot shorten the plan dramatically. If you want a visibly earlier debt-free date, the lever is the monthly budget itself: even a small permanent increase compounds, because every extra unit of money paid today stops generating interest for the rest of the plan.

Its minimum payment does not leave your plan: the calculator rolls it into the surplus that attacks the next target, which is the rollover both strategies rely on. This is why the total balance falls faster and faster toward the end of the plan even though your budget never changes. If a debt closes partway through a month, the leftover money cascades to the next target within that same month rather than idling. In practice this means the hardest stretch is the first months; every account you close makes the remaining ones fall faster.

Consolidation replaces several debts with one new loan, and it helps only when the new loan's effective rate, including every fee, is lower than the rates it replaces, and when you avoid re-borrowing on the cards it cleared. This calculator does not model consolidation offers, but it gives you the comparison baseline: the total interest and debt-free date of paying your current debts as they stand. Put any offer against that baseline, watch for origination fees and longer terms that lower the payment while raising the total cost, and check the rules and typical costs in your country before signing.

It assumes your rates stay constant, your budget is paid every month without interruption, and no new spending lands on the accounts while you repay. It does not model late fees, penalty rates, promotional 0% periods that expire, annual card fees, taxes, or consolidation and settlement offers. Minimum payment formulas also vary by lender and country, so check yours rather than relying on the defaults. The output is an educational projection of the mathematics of repayment, not financial advice; the numbers on your statements always take precedence.