Debt Payoff Planner

Month-by-month simulation

Every strategy is run month by month, not through a formula shortcut. Each month, every debt accrues interest at its monthly rate r = annual% ÷ 12 ÷ 100 and its minimum payment is applied first. The principal paid is minimum − interest. The closed-form n = −ln(1 − B·r/A) ÷ ln(1 + r) breaks when a payment barely covers interest.

Minimums only (the baseline)

Each debt is paid its own fixed minimum until it clears, nothing rolls over. This is the do-nothing baseline every other strategy is measured against. We assume the minimum stays fixed; real credit-card minimums are the greater of about 3% of the balance or a flat floor (5% in Quebec), which shrink over time and stretch payoff out even longer.

Avalanche vs snowball

Both pay every minimum, then pour your extra budget, plus every minimum freed up when a debt clears, onto one target debt. Avalanche targets the highest interest rate first: mathematically the least total interest. Snowball targets the smallest balance first: costs a little more but banks quick wins. The rolling "freed-up minimum" is what makes both beat paying minimums separately.

Your own payoff order

The arrows beside each debt set the order for the Your order plan. Every minimum is paid, then the extra budget and every freed-up minimum go to the first debt in your list that still has a balance, then the next. It is the same engine as the avalanche and the snowball with your order in place of their rule, so you can put the debt you most want gone at the top, a loan from family or a card you plan to close, and see exactly what that choice costs. When your order matches the avalanche or the snowball, the table says so.

The payment schedule

The schedule shows any of the five plans, by year or by month. By month, each row is one month, starting with next month's payment: what goes to each debt, the month's total, the interest charged and the balance left, with the month each debt is paid off highlighted. A debt's payment is its minimum plus whatever share of the extra pool reaches it that month. Download CSV saves the plan on show month by month, every debt's payment and balance included, along with the yearly summary and the strategy comparison.

Consolidation loan

All balances are combined into one loan. Any origination fee is financed into the balance, so the loan amount is total debt × (1 + fee%). The fixed monthly payment is the standard amortization P·l ÷ (1 − (1 + l)⁻ⁿ) where l is the monthly loan rate and n = term × 12. Consolidation wins only when its rate beats your weighted-average rate and you don't reborrow. A longer term lowers the payment but can raise total interest, so always compare the interest + fees column, not just the payment.

All-in cost and the recommendation

The fee is a real cost: you borrow it and repay it with interest. So every plan is compared on interest + fees (the fee is zero for every plan but the loan), and the recommended plan is the one with the lowest all-in cost among those that clear every debt, with a tie going to the sooner payoff. When that is a loan whose payment is above your monthly budget (minimums plus extra), the result says how much above: it clears sooner partly because it pays more each month. The consolidation note also shows the loan's rate once its fee is counted: the monthly rate i at which the payment for n months repays only the debts it paid off, payment × (1 − (1 + i)⁻ⁿ) ÷ i = total debt, times 12, solved numerically. A 6% loan over 3 years with a 3% fee works out to about 8.0%.

Same budget, one loan

The avalanche, the snowball and your order spend your minimums plus your extra every month; the loan only asks for its own payment, which is often less, so it looks slower partly because it pays less. When your budget is bigger than the loan's payment, the ranked bars, the table and the balance chart add a what-if, the same-budget loan: the same loan paid at your full monthly budget, max(loan payment, minimums + extra), until it is gone. That is the like-for-like comparison. It assumes you can prepay without a penalty (most lines of credit and many personal loans allow it, so check the loan agreement); a shorter term gets much the same result. It is shown beside the five plans and never picked as the recommendation, because the loan you entered has the term you entered.

The charts

The ranked bars stack each plan's interest and any loan fee, cheapest first, with the recommended plan highlighted; a plan that never clears has no total, so it is left out and named in the caption above the bars. Total balance over time plots every plan's combined balance month by month from today, with each plan's monthly outlay in the key and a marker at the recommended plan's debt-free month. Plans that turn out identical (often the avalanche and the snowball) share one line and one name, so no line hides under another; past 30 years the chart plots one point a year. The payoff-order chart stacks each debt's balance for the plan on show, so its top edge is that plan's line from the balance chart, with a marker at the month each debt reaches zero, numbered as in the list below. What a bigger budget buys reruns the avalanche at up to 21 extra amounts in even, round steps, from $0 to the largest of $1,000, twice your extra, or three times what the minimums fall short of the first month's interest. The steps are kept even so the slope of the curve reads true; your own extra is marked where it falls, labelled with its exact cost and payoff time, the avalanche row of the table. The curve starts at the first amount that clears every debt, since a plan that never clears has no total. The dashed line is the minimums-only total. Each step saves less interest than the one before.

When a plan never clears

Every plan runs month by month until each debt is paid, for up to 100 years. It stops early only when it can never move again. In a month where no debt fell, a balance that did not fall can only grow: its payment is fixed and its interest rises with it. That is checked debt by debt, not on the total, because a 6% loan with no minimum can push the total up for years while a card is being paid down, and once the card clears, its freed minimum can clear the loan. The snowball needs one more check: it sends the extra to the smallest balance, and as balances shift the extra can move to a debt it would clear, so a snowball (or an avalanche between two debts at the same rate) keeps going until no debt could fall even with the whole extra. A plan still paying down at 100 years shows as over 100 years, not never. On the balance chart a plan that never clears keeps running across the whole window, so a balance that keeps growing is drawn growing. Once it passes three times today's total it would squash every other line flat, so it is left off the chart and named under the title with the month it gets there; the payoff-order chart of such a plan stops at that month, or at the one-year mark if it gets there sooner.

2026 Canadian rate context

As of July 2026, unsecured personal-loan rates run roughly 8–13%, a HELOC sits near prime plus 0.5–1% (about 5–6% with prime at 4.70%), and balance-transfer cards advertise 0–3.99% promos for 6–12 months with a 1–3% transfer fee. Credit cards themselves average about 20.99%. Qualifying for the best rate depends on your credit score and income.

What this doesn't model

Declining percentage-based minimums, balance-transfer promo windows that expire, prepayment penalties, variable rates, new spending on cleared cards, or the tax treatment of interest. For a single card in detail try the credit card payoff calculator; for tapping home equity as a consolidation source see the home equity calculator.

A riba-free (halal) approach

If you avoid interest for religious reasons, the payoff logic still applies without taking on new riba: clear the highest-cost interest-bearing balances first, stop the meter by not carrying new interest, and where possible replace conventional debt with an interest-free arrangement (a qard hasan from family, or a Shariah-compliant provider). The interest figures here show the true cost of carrying the debt. See the halal finance hub for Shariah-aware tools.