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Debt Payoff Calculator

Avalanche against snowball, run side by side, with the real cost of choosing either.

What you owe

Often about $255.00 on this balance. Check your statement.

Often about $36.00 on this balance. Check your statement.

Often about $360.00 on this balance. Check your statement.

Your minimums come to $495.00. Anything above that is what does the work.

Debt free in

2 years 4 months

Paying $900.00 a month against $21,700 of debt, using the avalanche order. Total interest $3,267.

Total owed now

$21,700

Interest you will pay

$3,267

On the avalanche plan

Above the minimums

$405.00

This is the part that shortens the plan

Avalanche against snowball

Both methods cost the same here, so there is nothing to decide. Your highest rate and your smallest balance point at the same debt, so the spare money goes to the same place either way. Pick whichever you find easier to stick to.

The order, and when each one clears

  1. 1Store cardgone by month 3$57 interest
  2. 2Credit cardgone by month 16$1,386 interest
  3. 3Line of creditgone by month 28$1,824 interest

What is left, month by month

  • Month 1$21,060
  • Month 5$18,376
  • Month 9$15,517
  • Month 13$12,480
  • Month 16$10,079
  • Month 20$6,744
  • Month 24$3,307
  • Month 28$0
Balances fall slowly at first, because interest is charged on the whole amount before any of it is paid down. The curve steepens as each debt clears and its payment joins the next one.

What this does

List what you owe, the rate on each, and what you can put toward debt each month. This runs both standard methods to completion and shows the gap between them in dollars and in months, so the choice is made on a number rather than on an argument.

Why this one

Most payoff calculators pick a method for you and show one answer. This runs both, because the honest position is that avalanche always costs less and snowball is the one some people actually finish. Where the gap is forty dollars the argument is not worth having. Where it is four thousand, it is. You should be told which one you are looking at.

The formula

each month: interest  =  balance x annual rate / 12
pay every minimum, then put everything left on one debt
avalanche  =  highest rate first        snowball  =  smallest balance first

Published so you can check it. A calculator about money that will not show its working is asking to be trusted on the one thing you cannot verify.

Questions

Which method is better?
Avalanche always costs less in interest and is never slower, because it attacks the most expensive money first. Snowball clears an account sooner, which some people need in order to keep going. The tool shows you what that costs so you can decide with the number in front of you.
Why does it refuse to run sometimes?
If the monthly amount is below the total of your minimum payments, no plan is possible without missing one. Missed payments change the arithmetic in ways this cannot model, so it says so rather than projecting something untrue.
Does it account for new spending on the cards?
No. It assumes you stop adding to the balances. Continuing to spend on a card you are paying down is the single most common reason a plan like this does not survive contact with reality.

This tool is for education and planning only and does not constitute financial, legal or tax advice. EmpireSheets is not a regulated adviser. Rates, rules and thresholds change, so check anything time sensitive against a current official source before acting on it.

Debt Payoff Calculator: Avalanche vs Snowball | EmpireSheets