A payoff planner for every debt at once. Enter what you're actually paying on each one, and see the debt snowball run against the avalanche method, showing real total interest, a real payoff date, and the interest-versus-principal split on every payment, not just a formula. Or work backward: say when you want to be debt-free, and it works out exactly what each debt needs instead.
The avalanche method almost always costs less in total interest, since it attacks your most expensive debt first. Every month you delay paying down a high-rate balance is a month it keeps compounding against you. But a well-known finding on this topic, cited across financial research, is that people following the snowball method are more likely to actually finish, because eliminating a whole account early creates a real sense of progress the avalanche method doesn't give you until much later.
So the honest answer isn't "always use the mathematically optimal one". It is that the method you'll actually stick with for the next year or two is usually worth more than the one that's a few percent cheaper on paper. This tool shows you both real numbers so that trade-off is a choice you're making on purpose, not a guess.
Both methods pay the minimum on every debt and roll the full freed-up payment into the next target the moment one debt is gone, and that rolling mechanic is what makes payments accelerate over time under either approach. Treat the totals here as a close estimate rather than an exact figure: real card issuers vary slightly in how they time interest and minimum payments, which is true of every calculator on this topic, not just this one.
This remembers your debts the same way everything else on this site works: entirely in your own browser, never sent anywhere. Nothing needs an account or a login; if you clear your browser data or switch devices, it starts fresh, same as any other local setting. There's also a plain "start fresh" option if you'd rather not have it remembered at all.
Paying the highest interest rate first (the avalanche method) costs the least overall. Paying the smallest balance first (the snowball method) clears individual debts sooner and some people find that easier to stick to. The avalanche is cheaper; the snowball is often more motivating.
It matters to the total cost, not to whether you get there. Clearing high-interest debt first means less interest accrues while you work through the rest, but any consistent plan beats an inconsistent one.
Set a target in the "I want to be debt-free in this many months" field and the page solves backward for each strategy separately, because snowball and avalanche don't always need quite the same extra amount to hit the same finish line, since avalanche accrues slightly less interest along the way.
The interest rate is what is charged on the outstanding balance. APR folds in most fees alongside the interest rate into one annual percentage, so two debts with the same interest rate but different fees will have different APRs, and APR is the fairer number for comparing two different debts or offers.
It can, if the new loan's rate is genuinely lower than the blended rate of what it replaces, but consolidation loans sometimes stretch the term out, which can increase total interest even at a lower rate, the same term-reset trap that applies to mortgage refinancing. Compare the total interest of consolidating against the total interest of your current avalanche or snowball plan before committing.
Making every minimum payment on time is still a real, consistent plan, and protects your credit in the meantime. The snowball and avalanche methods are about the order you attack debt once there is any extra to allocate, not a requirement to have extra today. Revisit this planner whenever your budget changes.