List your debts, add whatever extra you can pay each month, and see the finish line — with the two classic strategies compared side by side. Everything runs in your browser.
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Plan your way out of debt: snowball vs avalanche compared, a debt-free date, total interest and a month-by-month payoff plan.
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List your debts, add an extra monthly payment, and get a real payoff plan: a debt-free date, total interest, both classic strategies compared, and the order your debts will die in.
Three debts — a $500 store card at 8%, a $1,200 credit card at 24% and a $3,000 personal loan at 16%, with $150 extra a month: the avalanche clears everything in 20 months for $665 of interest. Paying only the minimums would take 83 months and $2,666 — the plan saves about $2,001 and more than five years.
Every month, interest is charged on each balance, every minimum is paid, and whatever budget is left attacks the target debt — the highest APR for the avalanche, the smallest balance for the snowball. When a debt is cleared, its minimum rolls into the attack, which is why the plan accelerates: the last debts fall much faster than the first.
Mathematically the avalanche always costs the same or less interest, because it kills the most expensive debt first. The snowball clears whole debts sooner, which some people find easier to stick to — the calculator shows the exact price of that motivation, so you can choose with open eyes.
Card minimums are set to mostly cover interest at first, so the balance crawls. Adding even a modest fixed extra — and rolling freed minimums forward — is what turns decades into months.
The calculator tells you plainly: the plan never clears the debt. You need a bigger monthly budget, a lower rate (a balance transfer or consolidation), or both, until the balance falls month to month.
You can — any fixed debt works. Many people keep the mortgage separate, because its rate is low and its term is fixed, and attack the expensive revolving debts first.
No — your debts are calculated in your browser and never leave it.
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