Debt Payoff Calculator

Debt Payoff Calculator takes a list of what you owe and works out how long clearing all of it takes, in what order, and what the interest comes to. It runs the whole plan month by month: minimum payments on everything, the extra payment thrown at one debt until it is gone, and that debt's minimum rolled into the next one. That rolling is the snowball, and it is why the last debts clear much faster than the first.

Two orders are compared on your own numbers. Snowball clears the smallest balance first, which gets a debt out of your life soonest and is easier to stick to. Avalanche attacks the highest interest rate first, which always costs less in total. The gap between them is usually smaller than the arguments about them suggest, and it is shown in cash so you can decide whether the saving is worth the slower first win.

The extra payment is the only number that really changes the outcome. The minimums keep the debts alive; whatever goes in above them is what clears them. Raising the extra payment by a modest amount typically cuts months off the plan, and the comparison updates as you change it.

Each line is name, balance, interest rate and minimum payment. If you leave out the minimum, two per cent of the balance is assumed, which is typical for a credit card. Lines that cannot be read are skipped rather than guessed at.

This is arithmetic, not financial advice. It tells you what the numbers do; it cannot tell you whether a decision is right for your circumstances. Fees, taxes and local rules vary, so check anything that matters against the actual offer and speak to someone qualified before committing.

Everything is worked out inside your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded, logged or stored, which matters for the financial calculators in particular: the figures you put into them are nobody else's business.

• Shows debt free in, total interest, total repaid, versus the other order and first debt cleared together, so you are not running it twice
• A results table you can read across
• Updates as you type, with no button to press and no page reload
• Copy the result in one click
• Download the detail as a .csv for a spreadsheet
• Free, no sign-up, and it runs entirely in your browser

The debt payoff calculator is used by writers, developers, students, marketers and anyone else who needs the job done once without installing software. Common cases include:

• Putting several cards and loans into one plan
• Deciding between the snowball and avalanche orders with real numbers
• Seeing what another 100 a month takes off the end date
• Working out which debt to clear first
• Checking a debt plan somebody else has drawn up for you