Debt Payoff Calculator

When several debts pull money in different directions, the real questions are simple: when will they be gone, what will the interest cost, and which one should be attacked first? This debt payoff calculator answers all three. Enter up to five debts — a name if you like, the current balance, the APR and the minimum monthly payment — plus any extra amount you can add each month, and pick a strategy.

The engine simulates the plan month by month, the way it actually unfolds: every debt accrues interest at one-twelfth of its APR, every debt receives its minimum payment, and the extra money — together with the minimums freed up by debts already closed — goes to the current target. Snowball targets the smallest balance to close accounts quickly and build momentum; avalanche targets the highest APR to make the interest bill as small as possible.

Both strategies are computed on every run, whichever one you picked, and the result states plainly how much interest the avalanche order saves over the snowball on your exact numbers — often little on similar rates, and a lot when a high-APR credit card sits next to a cheap loan. You also get the debt-free date as years and months, the total paid, and the order in which each debt closes.

The calculator is honest about hopeless minimums: if a payment does not even cover a debt's monthly interest, it tells you the balance will never reach zero rather than showing a fantasy schedule. For a single loan with a fixed term, the loan calculator on this site computes the annuity payment and amortization; this tool is the one for juggling several balances at once — locally in your browser, with plain numbers that work in any currency.