✨ How much interest would you save paying off credit card debt?

A 32-year-old university lecturer earning £39k shared her story of juggling £5,100 in credit card debt. She constantly opens new cards for balance transfers, paying fees just to avoid interest, while living in her overdrafts.

This calculator shows how to break the cycle of debt-shuffling. By comparing the highest interest rate method (avalanche) against the snowball method, you can see exactly how much time and money you save by picking a strategy and sticking to it.

The avalanche method eliminates your costliest debts first. By attacking your most expensive balance, you reduce the total interest that accrues each month.

Enter your most expensive debt here. For the diarist, this represents the largest chunk of her £5,100 debt.

Enter your next largest balance. When you are trapped in a cycle of minimum payments and overdrafts, these middle balances just sit there treading water.

This calculator assumes fixed APRs and a constant monthly payoff budget to make the comparison clear.

The snowball method targets your smallest balance first for a quick psychological win. Wiping out a small balance entirely frees up its minimum payment to roll into the next target.

Enter your smallest balance here to see how fast you could score your first victory.

Your total monthly payoff budget must cover the minimum payments for all your cards, with enough left over to attack the target debt. If you only pay the minimums, your balances will never shrink.

Pick the avalanche method if you are motivated by saving the most money, and the snowball method if you are motivated by seeing progress quickly.

This view was inspired by:

• debt-avalanche-vs-snowball

For further related reading, check out:

• Reddit