Enter your debts and see your exact payoff date, total interest paid, and how much faster you can escape debt — with a side-by-side snowball vs. avalanche comparison and a visual balance chart.
Add each debt below. We'll sort them automatically based on your chosen method.
Results are estimates based on monthly compounding. Actual payoff may vary by lender. No data is stored on Beelinger servers.
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See which strategy saves you the most — and how much the extra payment changes things.
| Strategy | Debt-free date | Months | Total interest | Interest saved vs minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Run the calculator to see the comparison. | ||||
* "Minimum only" assumes no rollover payments and no extra amount — just the original minimums until each debt is gone.
Run the calculator to unlock your schedule.
| Month | Total payment | Interest | Principal | Balance remaining | Focus debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No results yet. | |||||
Everything you need to know about using this tool and choosing the right payoff strategy.
The debt snowball method is a debt payoff strategy popularized by Dave Ramsey. You list your debts from smallest balance to largest — ignoring interest rates — and focus all extra money on the smallest debt first while paying minimums on everything else. When that debt is gone, you roll its payment into the next smallest, creating a growing "snowball" of payments. The key insight is psychological: quick early wins build motivation and momentum that keeps you on track.
The debt avalanche almost always saves more money in total interest, because you attack your highest-APR debt first (the one costing you the most per dollar). The snowball saves you less mathematically but more psychologically — the quick wins make you more likely to stick with the plan. Research on debt payoff behavior (including work published in the Journal of Consumer Research) suggests that seeing individual debts disappear increases motivation more than reducing overall balance. Use this calculator's comparison table to see exactly how much the difference is for your specific debts.
This calculator runs entirely in your browser. Here's the logic: (1) Sort your debts by balance ascending (snowball) or APR descending (avalanche). (2) Each month, accrue interest on all debts at their monthly rate (APR ÷ 12). (3) Pay the minimum on every debt. (4) Apply any freed-up payments from paid-off debts plus your extra monthly payment to the current focus debt. (5) Repeat until all balances hit $0. The result is your exact payoff timeline, total interest, and a month-by-month schedule.
More than most people expect. On a $15,000 total debt load with an average 19% APR, adding $100/month to a snowball plan can cut payoff time by 18–24 months and save $1,500–$3,000 in interest, depending on your specific debt mix. Use the "extra payment" field in this calculator to see the exact impact for your situation. Even $50/month makes a meaningful difference because of how interest compounds.
You can, but most financial planners suggest tackling consumer debt (credit cards, personal loans, car loans) before your mortgage, for several reasons: mortgage debt usually has a lower interest rate, offers a tax deduction in some cases, and is secured by an asset that builds equity. For the snowball, Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps actually places the mortgage as the last debt in Step 6 — after all other consumer debts are cleared. If you do add your mortgage here, enter only the principal + interest portion of your payment, not taxes and insurance.
This is called a "negative amortization" situation — your balance is actually growing instead of shrinking. The calculator will warn you if this is happening. To fix it, either increase the minimum payment for that debt to at least 1–2% above the monthly interest charge, or add an extra payment that fully covers the shortfall. Credit card minimums are sometimes set dangerously low, which is exactly why the avalanche or snowball is so important.
This calculator uses a fixed APR for each debt — the rate you enter. For variable-rate credit cards, your actual interest may be higher or lower depending on Fed rate changes. We recommend using your current rate as a conservative baseline, and recalculating whenever your rate changes significantly. The schedule is most accurate for fixed-rate loans like personal loans, car loans, and student loans.
No. All calculations run locally in your browser using JavaScript. Your debt amounts, balances, and interest rates are never transmitted to or stored on Beelinger's servers. This is purely a client-side tool — you can even use it offline once the page has loaded.
The rollover effect is what makes the snowball (and avalanche) so powerful compared to just paying minimums. When your first debt is paid off, instead of spending that freed-up cash, you add it to the minimum payment on the next debt. So your monthly payments stay roughly the same total, but an ever-growing portion goes to a single debt until it's gone too. By the time you reach your last and largest debt, your entire original minimum payment plus all rolled-over payments — and any extra — are attacking it simultaneously. The result: each debt falls faster than the last.