Free financial tool
Debt Snowball vs Avalanche Calculator
List your debts, add what you can pay on top of the minimums, and see both strategies side by side: how many months until you are debt-free, how much interest each one costs, and which debt disappears first.
Avalanche saves $282 in interest; both finish in the same month.
At least one minimum payment does not cover its own interest, so that balance never reaches zero. Raise the minimum or the extra payment.
Snowball
First debt gone in month 6
Payoff order
- Personal loanmonth 6
- Store cardmonth 16
- Credit cardmonth 27
Avalanche
First debt gone in month 13
Payoff order
- Store cardmonth 13
- Personal loanmonth 24
- Credit cardmonth 27
Remaining balance, month by month
- Snowball
- Avalanche
What the calculator does
It runs the same monthly loop a bank runs: interest accrues on each balance, every debt receives its minimum payment, and everything left in your fixed budget — the extra payment plus any minimum freed by a debt you already closed — goes to one target debt. The snowball targets the smallest balance; the avalanche targets the highest rate. When a debt closes, its minimum rolls into the next target. That rollover is what makes both methods faster than paying minimums forever.
Your monthly budget stays fixed for the whole payoff. That is the one rule that matters: when a debt disappears, keep paying the same total amount.
How to read the result
The interest gap between the two methods is usually smaller than people expect, because both benefit from the same rollover. It grows when your largest balances also carry the highest rates, and it shrinks toward zero when the extra payment is big enough to close everything in a year or two. If the avalanche saves less than one month of your extra payment, the snowball's earlier first win is worth more than the difference.
Rates: use APR for US-style cards (the calculator divides it by 12). In Peru and much of Latin America, cards and loans quote an effective annual rate (TCEA / TEA) — switch the rate type so the monthly rate is derived correctly instead of overstated.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between debt snowball and debt avalanche?
Both pay minimums on every debt and send all extra money to one target. The snowball targets the smallest balance for quick wins; the avalanche targets the highest interest rate to minimize total interest. When a debt is paid off, its minimum payment rolls into the next target in both methods.
Which method saves more money?
The avalanche never costs more interest than the snowball and usually costs less, because it kills the most expensive balances first. The saving is often modest — a few hundred dollars over a multi-year payoff — unless your biggest balances also carry the highest rates.
Does the extra payment need to be large?
No. Even a small fixed extra shortens the payoff dramatically compared with minimums alone, because minimums shrink as balances fall and stretch the payoff for years. The calculator shows what any amount does, from zero upward.
Why does the calculator say a balance never reaches zero?
When a minimum payment is smaller than the monthly interest on that balance, the debt grows instead of shrinking. That happens with very low minimums on high-rate cards. Raise the minimum for that debt or add an extra payment and the payoff becomes finite.
Is this financial advice?
No. It is an educational simulator with rounded arithmetic. Real statements add fees, promotional rates, daily compounding and payment dates that shift results slightly. Use it to compare strategies, then check your own statements.