Debt payoff planner

Questions people actually ask

Avalanche or snowball — which should I pick?

Avalanche (highest APR first) always pays the least total interest — that is arithmetic, not opinion, and this planner shows the exact difference on your debts rather than arguing in the abstract. Snowball (smallest balance first) clears whole debts sooner, and for many people that visible progress is what keeps the plan alive. The honest answer: the best strategy is the one you will actually sustain, and on many debt sets the difference is smaller than people expect — check yours.

How is this different from other debt calculators?

Two ways. First, no registration wall — the well-known planner that saves your progress wants an account before it remembers anything; here your plan saves in your browser automatically. Second, progress: one-shot calculators tell you a date and forget you. This planner records your total balance each month as you update it, and draws your real progress against the plan — the number that actually keeps people going.

What does the extra monthly payment do?

It is the engine of the whole plan. Minimum payments are designed to keep you paying for decades; every extra unit of currency goes straight at your target debt’s principal, and when a debt dies, its freed-up minimum rolls into the attack too — that compounding of freed payments is why even a small extra amount moves your debt-free date by years. The planner shows exactly how much interest your extra payment saves against paying minimums only.

Why does it warn me that my plan never finishes?

Because sometimes that is the truth: when monthly interest exceeds your payments, the balance grows forever, and a calculator that quietly shows a 50-year answer instead of saying so is lying by omission. If you see that warning, the fix is more payment or a lower rate — a balance-transfer card or consolidation loan changes the arithmetic, though both are decisions to research beyond any calculator, this one included.

Is my debt information private?

Completely, by default: what you owe is sensitive, and nothing you enter here is uploaded — the simulation runs in your browser. Sign in with Google and your plan syncs across devices so you can update a balance from your phone; export or delete everything any time from My profile.