Debt avalanche calculator orders your debts by interest rate and projects payoff date and total interest saved versus minimums. Editable rates, no signup.
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Worked example: two debts, $100 extra
Take Card A: $2,000 at 24% APR, $60 minimum. Card B: $1,000 at 12% APR, $25 minimum. Add $100 extra. Sorted by APR, A is first, so the monthly pool is $100 extra plus A's $60 minimum, $160 total, and it all goes to A until A is gone.
Month 1: A accrues $2,000 x 24% / 12 = $40 interest, so its balance is $2,040 before the $160 payment lands, leaving $1,880. Repeat: $1,757.60 in month 2, $1,632.75 in month 3, and so on. A clears on payment 15 (last payment $84.79). Total interest on A across those 15 months: about $236.
Meanwhile B receives nothing for 15 months and compounds at 1% monthly, rising from $1,000 to $1,149.47. From month 16 the pool is $100 plus B's $25 minimum, $125, aimed entirely at B, which clears on payment 25. The calculator's output for these inputs: 25 months, roughly $542 total interest. Paying the $160 straight at B instead would not beat it, because B's rate is half of A's; every dollar moved from A to B costs 12% per year in forgone savings on a 24% debt.
Where the model bends
This engine funds only one minimum per month: the highest-APR debt still open. In the example above, Card B sat at $1,149.47 by month 15, up 14.9%, because no payment reached it. Real lenders demand every minimum every month, so your true pool would be $185, not $160, and total interest would land somewhat below $542. The tool is therefore conservative in months and slightly pessimistic on interest, which is the safer direction for a promise you make to yourself.
Other simplifications with real dollar effects: APRs are fixed, yet a 24% promotional card that reverts to 29.99% after month 12 changes the entire ordering; late fees and annual fees are absent (a $95 annual fee on Card B is 9.5% of its balance on day one); and the simulation hard-stops at 600 months, which only triggers on minimum payments too small to cover interest, the classic negative-amortization trap where a $5,000 balance at 29.99% with a $25 minimum grows, not shrinks. If your output ever shows 600 months, no extra payment exists in your budget and the plan needs restructuring before math helps.
