Get out of debt on a plan you can see
Put in what you owe and what you can pay each month. You get both payoff orders side by side — highest rate first, smallest balance first — with the difference stated in money and in months, a timeline of the whole thing, and the date the last payment lands. Then, if you want it, one email a month telling you how far in you are.
What you owe
Everything you put toward these debts together. It has to cover every minimum, or the balances grow instead of shrinking.
The plan
24 months of $800 payments clears $17,100 and costs $1,863 in interest along the way.
$800 a month. Every dollar above the minimums lands on one debt, so the whole of it comes off the balance the order is targeting.
The plan, the chart and the schedule below all use this figure, and so would the monthly note. For an exact amount, type it into the total above instead.
- 1Credit cardmonth 15
- 2Medical billmonth 24
- 3Car loanmonth 24
Check it month by month
| Month | Interest | Off the balance | Left owing | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | $180.21 | $619.79 | $16,480.21 | — |
| Month 2 | $171.44 | $628.56 | $15,851.65 | — |
| Month 3 | $162.51 | $637.49 | $15,214.16 | — |
| Month 4 | $153.42 | $646.58 | $14,567.58 | — |
| Month 5 | $144.16 | $655.84 | $13,911.74 | — |
| Month 6 | $134.73 | $665.27 | $13,246.47 | — |
| Month 7 | $125.13 | $674.87 | $12,571.61 | — |
| Month 8 | $115.36 | $684.64 | $11,886.97 | — |
| Month 9 | $105.41 | $694.59 | $11,192.38 | — |
| Month 10 | $95.28 | $704.72 | $10,487.66 | — |
| Month 11 | $84.96 | $715.04 | $9,772.62 | — |
| Month 12 | $74.46 | $725.54 | $9,047.08 | — |
| Month 13 | $63.76 | $736.24 | $8,310.83 | — |
| Month 14 | $52.86 | $747.14 | $7,563.70 | — |
| Month 15 | $41.77 | $758.23 | $6,805.46 | Credit card |
| Month 16 | $33.50 | $766.50 | $6,038.96 | — |
| Month 17 | $29.54 | $770.46 | $5,268.50 | — |
| Month 18 | $25.57 | $774.43 | $4,494.06 | — |
| Month 19 | $21.57 | $778.43 | $3,715.63 | — |
| Month 20 | $17.55 | $782.45 | $2,933.18 | — |
| Month 21 | $13.51 | $786.49 | $2,146.69 | — |
| Month 22 | $9.45 | $790.55 | $1,356.14 | — |
| Month 23 | $5.37 | $794.63 | $561.51 | — |
| Month 24 | $1.26 | $561.51 | $0.00 | Medical bill, Car loan |
Interest is charged on every balance at one twelfth of its APR before that month’s payment lands; whatever the payment covers beyond that comes off what you owe. The final row pays only what was left, which is why it can be smaller than the rest.
Every figure here is arithmetic on the balances, rates and minimums you entered — nothing is a recommendation. It assumes no new borrowing, no missed payments, and no change to your rates, and it knows nothing about fees or a promotional rate ending.
A note every month
Avalanche and snowball, without the sales pitch
Both methods pay every minimum every month and throw whatever is left at one debt. They differ only in which debt that is. The avalanche picks the highest APR, because that is the balance charging you the most per dollar left on it. The snowball picks the smallest balance, because clearing a whole account is a milestone you can feel, and people who feel progress keep going.
The arithmetic favours the avalanche whenever the dearest debt is not also the smallest — the numbers above will tell you by how much, on your debts rather than in general. Sometimes that gap is a few hundred dollars and a month; sometimes the two orders are identical and the choice is free. What the maths cannot tell you is which list you will still be following in a year, and that is the part that actually clears the debt.
Where these numbers come from
Each month the model charges every balance one twelfth of its APR, pays every minimum, then puts the entire remainder against the one debt the order names. When a balance reaches zero its minimum joins the remainder, which is why the last debts fall much faster than the first. The schedule runs month by month until nothing is left, up to thirty years; past that we say so rather than quote a date the model never reached.
If the monthly amount cannot cover the minimums, or the interest charged in the first month is larger than the payment going in, there is no payoff date to give — the balance grows every month instead of shrinking — and the page tells you exactly how far short the figure is. What the model does not know about: fees, promotional rates ending, variable rates moving, missed payments, or anything new you borrow.
For a single card, the credit card payoff calculator answers the same question with fewer inputs, and the debt payoff calculator compares the two orders without keeping a plan.
What lands in your inbox, and what it will not claim
The projection is stored the day you create the plan and is never rebuilt. That is deliberate: a schedule recalculated each month from the same inputs would find you exactly on track every single month, which would be a comforting number that means nothing. Each note quotes the plan you started with — months elapsed, the principal it clears by now, the balance it leaves, and the debt-free month it still points at.
We never see your accounts. So unless you tell us what you actually owe, the note says what the plan projected and labels it as exactly that. Report a real balance on your plan page and the next note compares the two, measured at the month you reported it. There is no account and no password: the link in the email is the only way back to the plan, and one click in any note stops the emails for good.
Paying off debt, answered honestly
Should I pay off the smallest balance or the highest interest rate first?
On the arithmetic alone, the highest rate: that is the avalanche order, and on most lists of debts it costs less interest than clearing the smallest balance first. The gap is usually smaller than people expect, which is why this page prints it in dollars and months for your own debts rather than leaving it as a principle. If clearing a whole account early is what keeps you paying, the snowball's extra cost may be the cheapest motivation available to you. What the maths cannot tell you is which list you will still be following in a year, and that is the part that actually clears the debt.
How much difference does an extra $100 a month make?
More than most people expect, because every dollar above the minimums lands on one debt instead of being spread across all of them. The slider in the plan above answers it for your own numbers: the new debt-free month, the months saved, and the interest saved, measured against the same debts on your budget alone. The effect builds on itself — a debt cleared sooner frees its minimum sooner, which is why the last debts fall much faster than the first.
What happens if I can only afford the minimum payments?
Then there is no surplus to direct and both orders become the same thing: minimums until the balances run out. Whether they ever do depends on the rates. If the interest charged in a month is larger than the payment going in, the total can only rise from there, and this page says so with both figures rather than printing a date it never reached. One caution about the model: it holds every minimum at the figure you typed, while a real credit card recalculates its minimum downward each month as the balance falls. That makes minimum-only payoff slower in life than it looks in any fixed-payment model, including this one.
Does this work the way my credit card does?
Closely, but not identically, and the differences are worth knowing before you check it against a statement. Interest is charged once a month at one twelfth of the APR, where most cards apply a daily rate to an average daily balance. Every minimum is held at the figure you entered. Rates are treated as fixed for the whole plan. And nothing here knows about fees, a promotional rate ending, a variable rate moving, a missed payment, or anything new you borrow. Those are the reasons your next statement will not match this to the cent.
Do you see my balances?
Not unless you ask for the monthly note. The whole plan above — both orders, the timeline, the month-by-month schedule — is worked out in your browser, and nothing leaves the page until you enter an email address. If you do, we store the debts you entered, the projection built from them, and your address, because a note that measures progress needs something to measure against. There is no account and no password: the link in that email is the only way back to the plan, and one click in any note stops the emails for good.
What if my balances change after I save the plan?
The stored projection is never rebuilt, deliberately. A schedule recalculated each month from that month's balances would find you exactly on track every single time, which is a comforting number that means nothing. Instead, your plan page takes the real balance you report and compares it with what the original plan expected in that same month, so a note can say ahead or behind and by how much. If your debts have changed enough that the plan no longer describes them, delete it from that page and build a new one.