Credit card → Store card → Personal loan → Car loan
Payoff order (snowball)
Store card → Personal loan → Credit card → Car loan
Monthly payment (all debts)
$910.00
With $910.00 a month, the avalanche clears everything in 31 months with $4,342.45 of interest; the snowball takes 32 months and $4,824.18. Avalanche saves $481.73. The first debt is gone in month 6 with the snowball and month 23 with the avalanche.
Debts still open
SnowballAvalanche
Total interest paid
When each debt is paid off 行数：4
Debt
余额
Rate %
Snowball month
Avalanche month
Interest (snowball)
Interest (avalanche)
Credit card
$7,500.00
24.9
28
23
$3,069.46
$1,936.72
Car loan
$11,000.00
6.9
32
31
$1,245.20
$1,232.97
Personal loan
$4,000.00
13.5
16
27
$445.80
$802.93
Store card
$1,200.00
19.99
6
24
$63.73
$369.83
计算方法 S
Monthly budget
∑minimums+extra=710.00+200.00=910.00
The budget stays the same every month, so each cleared debt's minimum rolls into the next target.
Each month
Add a month of interest (rate ÷ 12) to every open debt, pay every minimum, then put what is left on the first open debt in the target order.
Snowball target order (smallest balance first)
Store card → Personal loan → Credit card → Car loan
Avalanche target order (highest rate first)
Credit card → Store card → Personal loan → Car loan
Interest difference
4,824.18−4,342.45=481.73
关于Debt snowball vs avalanche calculator
Both methods pay every minimum each month and put the rest of the budget, including the minimums freed as debts are cleared, on one target debt. The snowball targets the smallest balance first; the avalanche targets the highest interest rate first. Both run month by month on the same budget, and the result compares months to debt-free, total interest and the order in which the debts disappear.
With the four default debts and 200 extra, a budget of 910 a month, the avalanche finishes in 31 months with 4,342.45 of interest and the snowball in 32 months with 4,824.18, so the avalanche saves 481.73. The snowball clears its first debt, the store card, in month 6; the avalanche clears its first, the credit card, in month 23.
Interest is added monthly at rate ÷ 12 and each minimum stays fixed. Minimums that fall with the balance, fees and new borrowing are not modeled.
计算示例
Four debts with 200 extra
Debts
Credit card, 7500, 24.9, 225
Car loan, 11000, 6.9, 310
Personal loan, 4000, 1…
Extra payment each month
200
Months to debt-free (snowball)
32
Total interest (snowball)
4,824.18
Months to debt-free (avalanche)
31
Total interest (avalanche)
4,342.45
Interest avalanche saves over snowball
481.73
Payoff order (snowball)
Store card → Personal loan → Credit card → Car loan
Payoff order (avalanche)
Credit card → Store card → Personal loan → Car loan
核验来源：Python decimal (prec 50) month-by-month simulation of both strategies with a constant budget
核验来源：Hand calculation: 200 a month clears A in month 2 and the 900 total in month 5
High-rate large debt vs low-rate small debt
Debts
Big high, 5000, 20, 100
Small low, 1000, 5, 50
Extra payment each month
150
Months to debt-free (snowball)
25
Total interest (snowball)
1,304.28
Months to debt-free (avalanche)
24
Total interest (avalanche)
1,174.47
Interest avalanche saves over snowball
129.81
核验来源：Python decimal month-by-month simulation
常见问题
Which is better, the debt snowball or the debt avalanche?
The avalanche usually costs less interest, because every extra payment goes to the most expensive debt. The snowball clears individual debts sooner, which some people find easier to keep up. With the default debts the avalanche saves 481.73 and one month, while the snowball's first payoff comes in month 6 instead of month 23. If the smallest balance also has the highest rate, the two orders are the same.
How does the debt snowball method work?
List your debts from smallest to largest balance, pay the minimum on all of them, and put every extra amount on the smallest. When it is paid off, add its payment to the next one. With 200 extra a month, the defaults clear the 1,200 store card in month 6, the 4,000 personal loan in month 16, the 7,500 credit card in month 28 and the 11,000 car loan in month 32.
How does the debt avalanche method work?
Order your debts by interest rate, highest first, pay every minimum, and send the extra to the top of the list; when a debt is cleared, its payment moves to the next highest rate. In the default example the 24.9% credit card is cleared in month 23, the 19.99% store card in month 24, the 13.5% personal loan in month 27 and the 6.9% car loan in month 31.
How much does an extra payment speed up debt payoff?
A lot, because the extra goes straight to principal and compounds as payments roll over. The default minimums total 710 a month and clear all four debts in 45 months with 7,576.90 of interest using the avalanche. Adding 200 a month cuts that to 31 months and 4,342.45; adding 400 cuts it to 25 months and 3,164.64.
Why roll a paid-off debt's payment into the next one?
Keeping the total payment constant is what makes both methods work. If each default debt were paid only by its own minimum, the last one, the credit card, would take 58 months and the interest would total 8,098.73. Rolling freed minimums forward with no extra money clears everything in 45 months with 7,576.90 of interest.
“Debt snowball vs avalanche calculator”有多准确？
准确性取决于输入值和方法的假设。十进制运算使用50位有效数字，但估算、数值方法和源数据的精度可能较低；显示时的舍入并不能消除这些限制。 已按独立来源核验的计算示例：4。 例如，“Four debts with 200 extra”根据Python decimal (prec 50) month-by-month simulation of both strategies with a constant budget进行核验。
这种方法出自哪里？
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — How to reduce your debt (snowball and highest-interest-rate methods); FDIC — How to dig out of debt? Grab more than one shovel.
关于此计算器
budget=i∑mini+extra;snowball: smallest balance first;avalanche: highest rate first