Enter each debt with its balance, rate and minimum payment. The calculator runs both common strategies - avalanche, which attacks the highest interest rate, and snowball, which clears the smallest balance first - and shows the real difference in months and interest rather than asserting that one is better.
Avalanche pays the highest interest rate first and always costs less in total. Snowball pays the smallest balance first, so individual debts disappear sooner. The financial advice community argues about this endlessly, usually without numbers. The comparison above uses yours: often the difference is a few hundred in interest and a month or two, which is a price worth paying for a method you will actually keep to.
Minimum payments are calibrated so that most of each one is interest — on a credit card at 22 per cent, paying only the minimum can take decades. Anything above the minimum goes almost entirely to principal, and that principal stops accruing interest from that month on. This is why an extra 100 a month has an effect out of all proportion to its size.
Two things beat any payoff strategy. Ask each lender for a lower rate — it works more often than people expect, particularly on cards with a good payment history. And check whether a consolidation loan or a balance transfer beats your weighted average rate, though only if the transfer fee and the rate after any promotional period still leave you ahead.
Avalanche always costs less interest, because it kills the most expensive debt first. Snowball clears individual debts sooner, which many people find easier to sustain. The gap is often smaller than expected - frequently under a few hundred in interest - and a plan you actually follow beats an optimal one you abandon. The calculator shows your own numbers so it is a choice rather than a slogan.
Minimum payments are set so that most of each one is interest. Anything above the minimum goes almost entirely to principal, and that principal stops accruing interest immediately. On credit card debt an extra 100 a month routinely cuts years off the term.
Then the balance grows no matter what order you pay in, and the calculator says so rather than producing a schedule. That situation needs a different tool - a consolidation loan, a hardship arrangement with the lender, or debt counselling.
Steuervergleich Kanton Zürich — Gemeindesteuern vergleichen (Deutsch)