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Both methods funnel a fixed monthly payment toward your debts and roll freed-up minimums into the next target. The only difference is the order. Snowball attacks the smallest balance first. Avalanche attacks the highest interest rate first.

Mathematically, avalanche always wins — you pay less total interest. In practice, snowball wins for most people because seeing a debt disappear in a few months keeps you committed when motivation wavers. If you've started and stopped paying off debt before, snowball is probably the right choice. If you're a numbers person who can stay disciplined, avalanche saves more money.

Use the toggle on our main calculator to compare both for your specific debts. The savings gap is often smaller than you'd expect.

The rollover (sometimes called "snowballing the payment") is the engine that makes both snowball and avalanche so much faster than minimums alone. Here's how it works.

Suppose you have three debts with minimums of $120, $285, and $210 — total $615/month. You're paying $200 extra, so $815/month total. The extra $200 hammers your target debt. When that target is paid off, its $120 minimum is freed up. You don't pocket it — you roll it into the next target. Now $200 + $120 = $320 is being thrown at the second debt. When that one finishes, you're attacking the last debt with $200 + $120 + $285 = $605 extra per month.

Each payoff compounds the speed of the next. That's why the same total monthly payment can shave years off your timeline compared to making flat minimums forever.

There's no magic number, but a few practical guidelines help. First, anything is better than nothing — even an extra $25/month meaningfully shortens a long payoff. Second, the impact is largest when applied to high-rate debt. An extra $100 against a 22% credit card saves more interest than $100 against a 5% loan.

A common framework: cover all minimums, fund a starter emergency fund (around $1,000), then send everything else toward debt until it's gone. If your income is irregular, set a fixed extra amount you can sustain in lean months and add bonus payments in good ones.

Try a few different "extra payment" amounts in the calculator and watch the debt-free date move. Most people are shocked by how much an extra $50–100/month changes the outcome.