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Debt Snowball Calculator

The debt snowball method pays the smallest balance first while making minimums on everything else. Quick wins matter when motivation is the bottleneck — seeing one card hit zero can keep you going through a long payoff. This example shows three debts with a $500 budget; snowball clears the $2,100 card before the larger balances.

Controls below let you swap in your real balances and minimums. Avalanche is computed alongside for an honest interest comparison. Download the snowball schedule as PDF or CSV. Nothing you type is uploaded or stored.

Compare strategies, not products. We do not recommend lenders, consolidation loans, or balance-transfer cards.

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Avalanche (highest rate first)

Payoff: 38 months

Total interest: $3,177.55

First debt cleared: month 26

Snowball (smallest balance first)

Payoff: 39 months

Total interest: $3,302.31

First debt cleared: month 13

Avalanche: 38 months · $3,177.55 interest

Snowball: 39 months · $3,302.31 interest

Avalanche saves $124.76 in interest compared to snowball.

Snowball clears your first debt 13 months sooner.

Paying only minimums costs $3,378.12 more in interest than avalanche.

Snowball clear order

  1. 1. Mastercard — month 13
  2. 2. Visa — month 31
  3. 3. Car loan — month 39
MonthDebtPaymentInterestPrincipalBalance
1Visa$1,440.00$1,065.71$374.29$4,425.71
1Mastercard$2,220.00$245.31$1,974.69$125.31
1Car loan$2,340.00$498.25$1,841.75$6,658.25
2Visa$3,475.00$763.39$2,711.61$1,714.10
2Mastercard$127.40$2.09$125.31$0.00
2Car loan$2,340.00$374.92$1,965.08$4,693.17
3Visa$1,830.93$116.83$1,714.10$0.00
3Car loan$3,865.00$226.72$3,638.28$1,054.89
4Car loan ✓$1,063.98$9.09$1,054.89$0.00

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