Debt Payoff Planner
List your debts, pick the snowball or avalanche method, and add any extra you can pay each month. See your debt-free date, the payoff order, total interest, and how much you save over minimum-only payments — snowball vs avalanche side by side. Runs entirely in your browser, no upload, no sign-up.
About this tool
This debt payoff planner turns a list of debts into a concrete plan to become debt-free. Enter each debt on its own line as name, balance, APR%, minimum payment, choose a payoff method, and add any extra you can pay each month. The planner simulates the whole payoff month by month and returns the payoff order, your debt-free date, the total interest you'll pay, and how much you save versus paying only the minimums.
It uses the standard rollover (a.k.a. cascade) method: your total monthly payment stays constant, and whenever a debt is cleared its freed-up minimum rolls onto the next target debt — so the payments accelerate as you go.
Two methods:
- Snowball — pay the smallest balance first. You clear whole debts quickly, which is motivating.
- Avalanche — pay the highest APR first. This costs the least total interest.
The result shows both side by side with a recommendation, so you can weigh quick wins against lowest cost.
Example
Enter these three debts, method snowball, extra $300/month, start 2026-01-01:
Visa, 2500, 19.99, 75
Car Loan, 8000, 6.5, 200
Store Card, 600, 24.99, 25
You'll get a JSON plan whose payoff order starts with Store Card (the smallest balance),
then Visa, then Car Loan, along with each debt's payoff date and interest, the overall
debt_free_date, total_interest, a minimum_only baseline, and a comparison block with
snowball vs avalanche totals and the recommended method. Switch the method to avalanche
and the payoff order re-targets the highest-APR debt (Store Card at 24.99%, then Visa) for the
lowest total interest.
Limits & notes
- Enter amounts as plain numbers —
$and%are ignored, but don't use thousands separators (the comma splits the four fields, so write2500, not2,500). - Up to 50 debts; APR up to 100%; the simulation is capped at 1200 months (100 years).
- Interest is compounded monthly (APR ÷ 12) and rounded to the cent each month, so the figures are estimates for planning — your lender's exact rounding and fees may differ.
- If your budget can never out-run the interest, you get a clear error instead of a result.
- Everything runs locally in your browser. No amounts are uploaded and nothing is stored.
FAQ
What's the difference between the snowball and avalanche methods?
The snowball method pays your smallest balance first, so you clear individual debts quickly and build momentum. The avalanche method pays the highest APR first, which minimizes the total interest you pay. Both use the rollover method — a cleared debt's payment cascades onto the next one. This planner runs both and tells you the interest and time difference so you can choose.
How does the extra monthly payment work?
The extra amount is added on top of all your minimum payments every month and is applied to the current target debt (the smallest balance for snowball, the highest APR for avalanche). When that debt is paid off, its minimum plus the extra roll onto the next target, so the payments snowball. Even a small extra can cut the payoff time and interest significantly — try changing it to see the effect.
Why does it say my debts can never be paid off?
If the total of your minimum payments plus the extra is less than the interest that accrues each month, the balances grow faster than you pay them down, so they'd never reach zero. The planner detects this and returns an actionable error. Raise a minimum payment or add an extra monthly payment until the budget covers at least the interest.
What is the "minimum-only" baseline?
It's what happens if you pay only each debt's minimum, with no extra and no rollover. It's the slow, expensive path — the planner reports its debt-free date and total interest so you can see exactly how many months and how many dollars your plan saves. If any minimum doesn't cover its own interest, the baseline is flagged as never-ending.
Does this account for fees, promotions, or changing rates?
No. The planner assumes a fixed APR per debt, monthly compounding, and constant minimum payments, and it ignores annual fees, late fees, and promotional/teaser rates. It's a planning estimate — treat the numbers as close guidance, not an exact statement from your lender.
Developer & Automation Access
Run it from the terminal
Same engine as this page, headless — via the gizza CLI:
gizza tool debt-payoff "Visa, 2500, 19.99, 75
Car Loan, 8000, 6.5, 200
Store Card, 600, 24.99, 25"New to the CLI? Get gizza →
Open it by URL
Pre-fill and auto-run this tool with query parameters — the names match the API/CLI:
https://gizza.ai/tools/debt-payoff/?debts=Visa%2C%202500%2C%2019.99%2C%2075%0ACar%20Loan%2C%208000%2C%206.5%2C%20200%0AStore%20Card%2C%20600%2C%2024.99%2C%2025&method=snowball&extra_payment=300&start_date=2026-01-01Machine-readable descriptor: tool.json — title + parameters JSON Schema for agents.