Compare the avalanche and snowball methods side by side. See your debt-free date, total interest saved, and the exact payoff order for all your debts.
| DEBT NAME | BALANCE | RATE % | MIN PAYMENT |
|---|
Pay minimums on all debts, then put extra money toward the debt with the highest interest rate. This method saves the most money mathematically and gets you debt-free fastest.
Pay minimums on all debts, then put extra money toward the debt with the smallest balance. This gives you quick wins and psychological momentum, which can help you stay on track.
Both methods work — the best one is whichever keeps you motivated to stick with it.
Tools that work alongside debt payoff planning:
→ Loan Calculator — Calculate monthly payments and total interest on any new loan before taking it on.
→ Compound Interest Calculator — See how compound interest grows your savings once debts are cleared.
→ ROI Calculator — Calculate whether paying off debt or investing gives you a better return.
→ Budget Planner — Coming soon — plan your monthly income and expenses.
There are two proven strategies for paying off multiple debts: the avalanche method and the snowball method. They agree on one critical principle — make minimum payments on all debts, then throw every extra dollar at a single target. Where they differ is in how that target is chosen.
The mathematical case for the avalanche method is clear — it minimises interest and clears debt in the fewest total months. But the best debt payoff strategy is the one you actually follow. Research on debt repayment behaviour consistently shows that people who experience early wins — from the snowball method — are significantly more likely to stay the course and reach debt-free status. The small amount of extra interest you pay with the snowball method may be worth it if it keeps you motivated.
Use the calculator above to run both methods against your actual debts. In most cases, the difference in total interest is smaller than you expect — and seeing your specific numbers removes the guesswork.
The single most impactful thing you can do to accelerate debt payoff is increase your monthly payment above the minimum. Credit card minimum payments are designed to keep you in debt as long as possible — they typically cover only 1–2% of the balance, which means most of each payment is absorbed by interest and the principal barely moves.
Consider a $5,000 credit card balance at 20% APR. At minimum payments (2% of balance, reducing as the balance falls), the payoff timeline extends beyond 30 years and total interest exceeds $8,000. A fixed payment of $200 per month clears it in 3 years and costs under $2,000 in interest — saving over $6,000 from the same $5,000 debt. Enter different monthly budget amounts in the calculator to see how dramatically extra payments change your timeline.
Getting the most accurate results requires using the right inputs. Here is exactly what to enter for each field and where to find the numbers:
A credit card with a 20% APR charges 1.667% per month on the outstanding balance. On a $5,000 balance, that is $83.33 in interest in the first month. If your minimum payment is $100, only $16.67 goes toward reducing the principal — the rest covers the interest. This is why high-rate debt is so damaging and why the avalanche method targets it first.
If you have multiple high-rate debts, a debt consolidation loan or 0% balance transfer card can dramatically reduce total interest. A consolidation loan that combines $20,000 of credit card debt at 20% APR into a personal loan at 8% APR could save thousands of pounds or dollars in interest and simplify your payments to a single monthly amount. The key consideration: the new rate must be genuinely lower than your existing debts' weighted average rate, and you must not continue accumulating new high-rate debt after consolidating.
Debt payoff is not primarily a maths problem — it is a behaviour problem. The numbers are simple. The difficulty is sustaining the behaviour over months and years of consistent extra payments. Here is what the research shows about what works: