Debt Payoff Planner
Plan paying off all your debts by snowball or avalanche, with your debt-free date and the real difference between them.
Your debtsExamples
Minimums are fixed amounts. Saved on this device only; nothing you enter leaves it.
$ 365 a month in all, with $ 165 of minimums
Smallest balance first, ties to the higher rate, ranked by today's balance as the plan runs. Each cleared debt's minimum goes to the next.
Lays out paying off several debts from one monthly budget: every minimum is paid, and whatever is left goes to one debt at a time in the order you choose. It gives your debt-free date and total interest, sets snowball against avalanche with the real difference in one sentence, and shows the month each debt is cleared.
The plan is saved on this device and nowhere else: there is no account, and no link carries it. Export it as CSV to keep a copy or move it to another device.
How to use it
- Debts — a name, the balance, the APR (or in Other, the monthly rate) and the monthly minimum. Minimums are fixed amounts; a card's minimum that falls with its balance is modelled in the Credit Card Payoff Calculator. Enter a loan with its fixed payment as the minimum. An intro rate runs for its months, then the debt's own rate applies.
- Country — how APRs are read: divided by 12 in the US, as an effective yearly rate in the UK.
- Monthly budget — the extra you can pay on top of the minimums, or the total each month; the other is shown under it.
- Strategy — snowball (smallest balance first), avalanche (highest rate first) or custom (the table's order; move rows with the arrows).
- Add a one-off payment — up to three extra payments, each in a month you choose, such as a bonus or a tax refund. Each joins that month's budget.
How it works
Payments start next month. Each month, interest is charged on every debt at its rate for that month, rounded to the cent; every minimum is paid, capped at what the debt owes; and the rest of the budget goes to the first debt in the strategy's order. What that debt does not need spills to the next in the same month. Once a debt is cleared, its minimum stays in the budget and goes to the next debt, so the amount paid each month holds until the last debt is cleared.
Snowball ranks by the current balance, ties going to the higher rate; avalanche ranks by the current rate, ties going to the smaller balance. The order is ranked again only when the debt being paid off is cleared or a rate changes, such as an intro rate ending, never in the middle of a month. A debt whose minimum is below its interest grows until the plan reaches it, and can move ahead in the snowball order; the table's “Extra goes to” column shows each switch.
“Minimums only, no rollover” pays each debt its own minimum until it is cleared, and nothing more. It is the baseline the interest saved is measured against.
Examples
Dave Ramsey's three debts, both ways
Medical bill, $ 500 at 0%, minimum $ 25; Credit card, $ 2,000 at 18%, minimum $ 40; Student loan, $ 10,000 at 6%, minimum $ 100, with $ 200 a month on top of the minimums. Snowball is debt-free in 3 years 3 months with $ 1,399.41 of interest, clearing the debts in months 3, 11, 39. Avalanche takes 3 years 2 months and $ 1,335.12, clearing them in months 20, 9, 38. Avalanche saves $ 64.29 in interest and finishes 1 month sooner; snowball clears your first debt 6 months earlier. Paying only the minimums takes 11 years 7 months and $ 5,622.17.
A card whose intro rate ends
Card A, $ 4,000 at 0% for 6 months, then 27%, minimum $ 80; Card B, $ 3,000 at 20%, minimum $ 75, with $ 150 a month above the minimums. Avalanche pays card B first while A is at 0%, then switches to A when its intro ends: 2 years 5 months and $ 1,599.89. Snowball pays B first throughout, as the smaller balance: 2 years 5 months and $ 1,748.15.
Frequently asked questions
See also
- Credit Card Payoff Calculator — for one card, with its minimum falling with the balance and a balance transfer compared.
- Loan Calculator — for one loan's payment and full amortization schedule.