Debt Payoff Calculator
Snowball pays the smallest balance first so you feel the wins; avalanche pays the highest rate first so you pay the least. List your debts and your extra, and this shows what each plan really costs — payoff dates for every account, the interest gap in dollars, and an honest call on which one to run.
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Snowball, avalanche, and the fight you're actually in
Strip the branding away and both methods are the same machine: pay every minimum, aim everything extra at one target debt, and when a debt dies, roll its freed-up minimum into the next one. That rollover — your payment staying constant while the debts shrink — is what actually accelerates the payoff. The famous argument is only about the order of the targets.
Avalanche is mathematically optimal. A dollar thrown at a 25% credit card neutralizes more interest than a dollar thrown at a 6% student loan, every single month. Order your debts by rate, highest first, and no other order can beat it on total interest. That's not an opinion; it's arithmetic.
So why does snowball keep winning in real life? Because paying off debt isn't a spreadsheet problem — it's a keep-doing-this-for-four-years problem. Smallest-balance-first closes accounts early, and a closed account is fuel: studies of real borrowers keep finding that people who get quick wins are more likely to stick with the plan at all. An optimal order you abandon in month nine loses to a "suboptimal" one you finish.
This calculator's job is to price the disagreement, so you're deciding with numbers instead of slogans:
- The real gap: total interest and the debt-free date for both orders, on your actual balances and rates. Sometimes avalanche saves serious money; often it's a rounding error.
- The first win: the date your first account hits zero under each plan — the thing snowball buys, measured in months instead of vibes.
- The minimums-only baseline: what staying put costs. Either strategy usually beats it by years — the extra payment matters far more than the order it follows.
If the gap is big, take the avalanche savings. If it's small, take the momentum — guilt-free, because now you know exactly what it costs.
Common questions
- Does the snowball method really work if it costs more?
- It can — because the most expensive plan is the one you quit. Avalanche only wins if you sustain the extra payment all the way through, and for many people the early closed accounts that snowball delivers are what make that sustainable. The honest move is to look at the gap in dollars: if avalanche saves you $2,000, grit your teeth; if it saves $80, take the quick wins and don't look back.
- Should I consolidate or do a 0% balance transfer instead?
- Check those levers first — they change the rates, which is more powerful than reordering them. A 0% balance-transfer card (mind the 3–5% fee and the promo deadline) or a consolidation loan below your card APRs can beat either payoff order outright. Then run this calculator on whatever debts remain. What rarely helps: borrowing against a 401(k) or rolling unsecured cards into your house.
- Is anything saved or sent anywhere?
- No. Every number runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored, or shared — and you can export the month-by-month plan for either strategy to CSV with one click.
The plan only works if the extra shows up
Snowball or avalanche, the engine is the $300 you send every month — and finding it is the hard part. Taly auto-splits each paycheck so the minimums, the extra, and everything else are covered before the money wanders off.