Debt Snowball Calculator
Enter your debts and an extra monthly payment to see the order to clear them, your debt-free date, and how much interest and time you save against paying only the minimums.
Your debts
On top of all the minimums. This is your snowball.
Payoff order
Clear the smallest balance first, then roll its payment onto the next. Fastest for quick wins and motivation.
Debt payoff plan
Debt Free In
2 years, 3 months
Payoff order
- 1Overdraftcleared month 8
- 2Credit cardcleared month 17
- 3Car loancleared month 27
The plan keeps your total monthly payment fixed - every minimum plus your extra - and puts all the spare money on one debt at a time. As each debt clears, its payment rolls onto the next, so the amount going at the target grows. Interest rates and minimums are assumed to stay the same throughout.
How the debt snowball works
The snowball method has one rule: always pay the minimum on every debt, then throw every spare pound at the debt with the smallest balance. The moment that debt is gone, the money you were paying towards it - minimum and extra - moves to the next smallest debt. Your total monthly payment never goes down; it just concentrates on fewer and fewer debts, so the last one gets cleared very fast.
Snowball versus avalanche
The avalanche method targets the highest interest rate first instead of the smallest balance. It is always the cheapest in total interest, sometimes by a lot when one debt has a much higher rate than the rest. The snowball trades a bit of that saving for clearing whole debts sooner, which is easier to stay motivated by. This calculator runs both so you can see the gap for your own situation and pick the one you will actually stick to.
Why the extra payment matters so much
Minimum payments on cards and overdrafts are set low, often close to the monthly interest, so on their own they can take decades. Because the extra payment in this plan rolls forward every time a debt clears, even £50 or £100 a month usually removes years from the timeline and hundreds or thousands of pounds of interest.
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