Debt payoff calculator

Both pay every minimum every month. The snowball puts everything left over onto the smallest balance, so debts disappear sooner and the list gets shorter faster. The avalanche puts it onto the highest interest rate, which costs less overall. This page shows you both figures and does not tell you which to pick.

That is not a question a calculator can answer, and this one will not try. What it can tell you is the size of the difference: when it is small, the plan you actually stick to is the one that works, and when it is large, the number is there for you to weigh.

Monthly, at the annual rate divided by twelve. Real credit cards compound daily, so the true interest is slightly higher than shown — a few dollars over a typical payoff. It applies equally to both strategies, so the comparison between them is unaffected.

Because the payments entered do not cover the interest charged that month, so the balance is larger at the end of the month than at the start. The calculator detects this before simulating and tells you the monthly total needed to start making progress, rather than running for fifty years and printing a meaningless date.

Not always. Every debt keeps receiving its own minimum payment, so a small debt can clear on its own before the one you are targeting. The order shown is the order they actually disappear.

No. The whole month-by-month simulation runs in your browser. Your balances never leave it, and this site runs no analytics.