Debt payoff calculator: which debt gets paid first?
List your debts. Set one monthly budget. The ledger runs both plans side by side: highest rate first, or smallest balance first, and shows exactly what each one costs.
Tool № 6 · Thursday, September 24, 2026 · free, always
Two payoff plans, one budget, every month accounted for.
Debt ledger · Form DP-6
A side-by-side posting of two payoff plans. The arithmetic is exact; your rates and habits are not.
Month-by-month schedule
1. Interest posts once a month, before payments: balance × APR ÷ 12.
2. Each month pays every minimum first, then aims the leftover budget at the target debt.
3. Figures are rounded to the cent; the math underneath is not.
4. The schedule stops at 600 months and says so.
Educational estimates, not financial advice. This page shows arithmetic, not recommendations. Interest keeps accruing while you pay, and these figures assume your rates, minimums, and budget stay constant, which real life rarely allows. This page names no cards and recommends none. Talk to a licensed professional before you act on these figures.
How the math works
This is a month-by-month amortization of every debt you list. Each month, in this order: (1) every unpaid debt accrues interest at balance × APR ÷ 12, rounded to the cent; (2) the slip pays each debt’s minimum, in the order you listed them; (3) whatever is left of your budget goes to the target debt: the highest APR for the avalanche, the smallest balance for the snowball. When a debt hits zero, its minimum is freed and rolls into the next target automatically.
Two guard rails keep the ledger honest. If your budget does not cover all the minimums, the page says so instead of guessing. If any debt’s payment does not beat its interest for the month, the page stops with an error: a balance that never shrinks is a plan that never ends. The schedule caps at 600 months and says so if it gets there.
With the defaults (Card A: $3,000 at 24% with a $75 minimum; Card B: $1,500 at 12% with a $40 minimum; $300 a month): the avalanche clears both in 18 months with $651.23 of interest; the snowball also takes 18 months but costs $822.38 in interest. Same finish line, $171.15 apart.
Common questions
Avalanche or snowball: which costs less in interest?
The avalanche almost always costs less in interest, because it aims every spare dollar at the highest rate first. The snowball can cost a little more, but it clears the smallest debt sooner, which some people find easier to stick with. This page works as both an avalanche vs snowball calculator and a debt snowball calculator: it runs both plans on your numbers so you can see the exact trade.
What if my budget only covers the minimum payments?
Then the plan is just the minimums, and the ledger will say so plainly. If the minimums do not fit the budget at all, or a minimum does not cover that month’s interest, the page stops with an error instead of guessing.
Is this debt payoff calculator financial advice?
No. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. It assumes your rates, minimums, and budget stay constant, which real life rarely allows. Talk to a licensed professional before you act on these figures.
Where does my debt information go?
Nowhere. The whole calculation runs in your browser. There are no accounts, no sign-ups, and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
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