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Credit Card Payoff Calculator: Avalanche vs Snowball

List your cards and the total you can put toward them each month. See how long the debt avalanche and the debt snowball take, what each costs in interest, and how both compare with paying minimums only — with the full month-by-month schedule.

Pairs with our guide: Debt snowball vs avalanche — which is better?

Your cards

Up to 10 cards.

Your plan

$
Everything you can pay across all cards each month, minimums included.
$

Strategy details

Payoff order for each method, and the month-by-month schedule.

How this calculator works

The calculator runs a simple monthly simulation for each strategy. Every month, each card is charged interest on its balance:

Interest = Balance × APR ÷ 12

Then the minimum payment is made on every card, and whatever is left of your monthly budget goes to one target card. When the target hits zero, its minimum payment is freed up and rolls into the next target along with the extra — that is why both methods speed up as they go. The one-time extra payment is applied in month 1. The simulation stops when every balance is zero, or after 600 months.

  • Debt avalanche targets the card with the highest APR first, then the next highest.
  • Debt snowball targets the card with the smallest balance first, then the next smallest.
  • Minimums only makes only the minimum payment on each card, with no extra — the baseline that shows what the other two save.

If you enter a minimum as a percentage of the balance, it is recalculated each month with a $25 floor, which is roughly how issuers set minimums and is what makes paying minimums only take so long.

Why avalanche is the cheapest on interest

A dollar of extra payment saves you next month’s interest on that dollar: at 27.99% APR it saves about 2.33 cents a month, at 19.99% about 1.67 cents. Every dollar you send to the higher-rate card instead of the lower-rate one earns you the difference, month after month, until the debt is gone. Because avalanche always puts the extra where the rate is highest, no other ordering of the same payments can produce less interest — it is mathematically the cheapest, and it is never slower than snowball.

Why the difference is often smaller than you expect

Two things shrink the gap. First, the minimum payments are the same under both methods, and they are usually most of the money; only the extra is allocated differently. Second, your APRs are probably in a fairly narrow band — a few points between 20% and 30% — so the “wrong” order costs a few points of interest on part of the balance for part of the time. The gap grows when your largest balance also has the highest rate (so snowball leaves it accruing for longest), or when the rates are far apart.

When snowball’s motivation edge is worth it

The best plan is the one you finish. Snowball gives you a paid-off card within a few months, one fewer bill to track, and visible progress — for a lot of people that is the difference between sticking with the plan and abandoning it. If the calculator shows snowball costing a modest amount more over the whole payoff, that can be a reasonable price for a plan you will actually keep. A common compromise is to clear one small balance first for the win, then switch to avalanche.

The minimum-payment trap

Issuers set minimum payments, commonly around 1–3% of the balance plus that month’s interest, or a small floor if the balance is tiny. Because the minimum shrinks as the balance falls, paying only the minimum keeps the payment barely ahead of the interest, and the payoff stretches across many years while the interest adds up to a large share of what you borrowed. The “minimums only” column exists to show that cost in your own numbers — and if your minimums do not even cover the interest, the calculator says so.

Worked example

Three cards: $6,000 at 24.99% (minimum $150), $2,500 at 19.99% (minimum $60) and $900 at 27.99% (minimum $35), with a total budget of $500 a month. Paying minimums only takes about 87 months and costs about $9,317 in interest. The avalanche is debt-free in 24 months with about $2,384 in interest; the snowball also takes 24 months but costs about $2,542 — a difference of about $159. In this example the smallest card is also the highest-rate card, so both methods clear it in month 4; they part ways only on whether the $6,000 card (higher rate) or the $2,500 card (smaller) comes next. Snowball clears its second card in month 11; avalanche in month 20. Either plan saves nearly $7,000 and more than five years against minimums alone.

Tips

  • Check the APR on each statement — promotional rates, cash-advance rates and penalty rates can differ from the purchase rate. Our guide to reading a credit card statement shows where to find them.
  • Find the budget figure with the budget calculator: minimum payments belong in needs, everything above the minimum comes from the savings-and-debt bucket.
  • Stop adding new charges to the cards you are paying off, or the schedule resets every month.
  • Put windfalls — a tax refund, a bonus — into the one-time extra field to see how many months they cut.
  • For the full case for each method, read debt snowball vs avalanche — which is better?
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Frequently asked questions

Avalanche or snowball — which should I use?

On the arithmetic, avalanche (highest APR first) always costs the same or less in interest and never takes longer, because every extra dollar goes where it earns the most. Snowball (smallest balance first) clears a first card sooner, which many people find easier to stick with. Run both above: if the interest gap is small relative to your balances, pick whichever you are more likely to follow for the whole payoff. If the gap is large — usually because your biggest balance also carries the highest rate — avalanche is worth the wait.

Should I use a balance transfer card instead?

A 0% promotional balance transfer can cut the interest dramatically, but it is not free: most charge a transfer fee (commonly a percentage of the amount moved), the promotional rate ends after a fixed period, and the remaining balance then accrues interest at the card’s regular rate. It only helps if you can pay most of the balance off inside the promotional window and you do not run the old cards back up. Treat it as a tool to speed up the plan you build here, not a replacement for one.

Does paying twice a month help?

Slightly. Card interest is usually calculated on your average daily balance, so paying earlier in the cycle lowers the balance that accrues interest for part of the month. The saving is small compared with paying more in total. Where two payments genuinely help is habit: paying each time you are paid keeps the money from being spent on something else. This calculator assumes one payment a month, which is a conservative estimate.

What if I cannot cover the minimum payments?

Contact each issuer before you miss a payment — many have hardship programs that can lower the rate or the minimum temporarily. If the total is still out of reach, a nonprofit credit counseling agency can review your budget and, where appropriate, set up a debt management plan that consolidates payments and often reduces the rates. Check that any agency you use is nonprofit and accredited, and be wary of anyone who charges large upfront fees or promises to make debt disappear.

Does closing a card once it is paid off help?

Usually not for your credit score. Closing a card reduces your total available credit, which raises your utilization ratio on the cards that remain, and eventually removes an older account from your history. If the card has no annual fee, keeping it open with a zero balance is generally the better move. Close it only if the fee is not worth it or you know you will run the balance back up.