⛄ Debt Snowball Payoff Calculator

Add your debts with balance, interest rate, and minimum payment, plus any extra you can pay each month. The snowball method directs your extra payment toward the smallest balance first for quick wins.

What the simulation does each month

Rates play no part in choosing the target - only the size of what is left. The smallest surviving balance takes the extra; the rest get their minimum:

target   = smallest balance still outstanding
interest = balance x (APR / 100 / 12)
balance  = balance + interest - minimum - (extra, on the target only)

With the sample debts - $1,000 at 22%, $5,000 at 6%, $2,000 at 25% - and $200 spare, the $1,000 card is gone in month 5 and the $2,000 card in month 14, leaving the car loan to finish in month 24. Total interest: $836.16.

What the quick win costs

Paying the highest rate first, the avalanche order, is always the cheaper arithmetic; the snowball trades some of that for a debt that vanishes early. Here the trade is small - the avalanche costs $784.67, some $51 less over the same 24 months. Change the shape and the price rises: a $12,000 card at 24% beside a $3,000 car loan at 4%, with $300 extra, clears the car in month 7 but finishes in month 32 for $4,876, where the card-first order finishes in month 26 for $3,588. That win costs $1,288 and half a year.

Debts wait their turn on minimums alone. If a minimum is smaller than that debt's monthly interest, its balance grows while it waits, and the run stops at 600 months with 50+ years shown.

Frequently asked questions

Snowball or avalanche - which should I use?

The avalanche always pays less interest; the snowball clears a debt sooner. Run your own numbers in both and look at the gap - a few tens of dollars is a fair price for momentum, a thousand is not.

How soon does the first debt disappear?

On the sample list, month 5 rather than month 9 under the highest-rate order. The number of separate payments you owe drops fast, even though the total falls no faster.

Does a cleared debt's minimum roll into the next one?

Not in this simulation - only the extra payment moves down the list, so the timeline is conservative. Do roll the freed minimum in yourself and the sample debts finish in 21 months for $789 instead of 24 months for $836.