Enter your balance, interest rate, and monthly payment — get a full month-by-month payoff schedule in seconds. Free, no sign-up required.
Three simple steps to your debt-free date.
Input your current balance, annual interest rate (APR), and your planned monthly payment. Add an extra payment amount to see how much faster you can pay off your debt.
The calculator instantly shows your debt-free date, total interest paid, total amount paid, and how much interest you save by adding extra payments.
Scroll through your complete month-by-month amortization table showing every payment, interest charge, principal reduction, and remaining balance until you're debt-free.
Two proven approaches to paying off more than one debt — the math behind each, and how to pick.
Make the minimum payment on every debt, then send every extra dollar to whichever balance carries the highest interest rate. Once that debt is gone, roll its payment into the next-highest-rate balance. Because interest is what makes debt expensive in the first place, targeting the highest rate first mathematically minimizes the total interest you pay across every debt combined.
Make the minimum payment on every debt, then send every extra dollar to whichever balance is smallest — regardless of its interest rate. Once that debt is gone, roll its payment into the next-smallest balance. Behavioral-finance research on habit formation generally supports the idea that visible, frequent wins help people stick with a long repayment plan, which is the case for Snowball: it usually costs more in total interest over time, but it can be easier to actually finish.
This calculator runs the numbers for one debt at a time. If you're juggling several — a credit card, a personal loan, a medical bill — rank them by interest rate for Avalanche or by balance size for Snowball, then work through each one with the calculator above in that order: full extra payment on the current target, minimums on the rest. Once a debt clears, its old payment becomes extra money for the next one in line, which is why the payoff tends to accelerate the further into the list you get.
The exact math behind a common scenario, using this calculator's own formula.
Example: say you owe $8,000 on a credit card at 19.99% APR and you're paying $250 a month — the same numbers pre-filled in the calculator above. At $250/month with no extra payment, the balance clears in 47 months, and you pay about $3,524 in total interest, for a total cost of roughly $11,524.
Add just $50 a month (paying $300 total) and the payoff time drops to 36 months — about 11 months faster — while total interest falls to roughly $2,667, a savings of around $858. Push the extra payment to $100 a month ($350 total) and you're done in 30 months, paying about $2,153 in interest — a savings of more than $1,370 compared to the minimum-payment path.
The pattern holds generally: on a high-APR balance, a relatively modest increase in your monthly payment removes a disproportionate amount of interest, because every dollar that isn't consumed by interest each month starts reducing principal instead — which lowers next month's interest charge too, compounding the effect. Plug in your own balance, rate, and payment above to see this play out with your numbers.
Minimum payments are calculated to keep a debt alive, not to pay it off quickly. On a high-APR card, a large share of a minimum payment can go straight to interest, leaving very little to reduce what you actually owe.
If one debt's APR is dramatically higher than another's, prioritizing it under Avalanche usually saves meaningfully more than Snowball would — the bigger the rate gap between your debts, the more that math matters.
This calculator, like most payoff plans, assumes no new purchases hit the balance while you're paying it down. Continuing to charge the card you're trying to pay off will push your real payoff date later than what any calculator predicts.
Bouncing between Avalanche and Snowball resets your sense of progress and momentum. Pick the approach that fits your own temperament and stick with it until you're debt-free, rather than changing every few months.
This tool uses standard amortization math: each month's interest equals your balance times your APR divided by 12, and everything you pay beyond that interest reduces principal. That's the same convention used by most credit card issuers and installment lenders for a fixed rate. A few things it does not do: it won't anticipate a variable-rate card's future rate changes, it doesn't add late fees or over-limit charges, and it assumes you make the same payment on the same schedule every month without ever missing one.
It also doesn't know about new charges. If you keep using a credit card while paying it down, your actual payoff date will land later than what's shown here, since the calculator can only work with the balance and payment plan you enter — it has no way to see purchases you haven't made yet. Treat the result as a planning estimate rather than a guarantee, and if your APR or minimum payment changes, come back and re-run the numbers with the new figures.
Common questions about debt payoff calculations.
Practical guides to help you get debt-free faster.
Two proven methods, one right answer for your situation. We break down the math, the psychology, and which strategy saves you the most money.
Read the guide →APR, daily periodic rates, minimum payment traps — understand exactly how your credit card company calculates what you owe each month.
Read the guide →Stop adding debt, cut expenses, make extra payments, and more. A practical, step-by-step roadmap to becoming debt-free as quickly as possible.
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