Debt Payoff Calculators

Debt payoff calculators compare the two standard orderings for clearing multiple balances: snowball and avalanche. Mechanically the methods are identical — you keep paying the minimum on every debt and direct all extra money at one target debt at a time. When the target is cleared, its freed-up minimum payment rolls forward into the attack on the next target, so the amount applied to each successive debt keeps growing. The only difference between the methods is the targeting order: snowball attacks the smallest balance first, avalanche attacks the highest interest rate first.

That single difference produces a measurable trade-off. Avalanche always minimizes total interest paid, because every extra dollar goes at the most expensive balance available — an arithmetic fact, not a matter of style. Snowball closes individual accounts sooner, which shortens the list faster even though it can cost more in interest over the full plan. The calculators here quantify both sides for your actual debts: the interest difference in dollars and the payoff order in dates, instead of an abstract argument. Each needs the same inputs per debt — current balance, APR, and minimum payment — plus the total amount you can put toward debt each month.

The credit-card payoff tool covers the single-balance case, where ordering does not apply. It runs in both directions: enter a fixed monthly payment and it returns the months to zero and the total interest along the way, or set a target payoff date and it returns the monthly payment required to hit it. The debt consolidation tool asks a different question about the same debts: instead of ordering payments, it compares keeping every balance on its own rate against replacing them all with one fixed-rate loan — origination fee financed in — and reports the payment, debt-free date, and total cost of each path side by side. The table below summarizes which tool fits which situation.