Debt Snowball vs Avalanche: Which Pays Off Debt Faster? (Same 5 Debts, Calculated)

Snowball pays the smallest balance first, avalanche pays the highest interest rate first. Everyone knows the definitions. Nobody shows the numbers. So here are the same five debts, run three ways in a spreadsheet, and what actually moved the debt-free date.

The two methods in one table

Both methods use the same rule underneath: pay minimums on everything, put every spare dollar on the target debt, and when the target is gone, its whole payment rolls into the next one. That rollover is the engine. The method only decides the order.

The same 5 debts, three ways

Sample debts from the tracker, typical mix of a household that has been carrying balances for a while:

Way 1: minimums only, no rollover

Each debt paid at its minimum until it is gone, and when one is gone the money is simply not paid to anyone. This is what happens by default if you never make a plan.

• Credit card: 63 months, 3,399 interest
• Car loan: 35 months, 978 interest
• Student loan: 104 months, 3,651 interest
• Medical bill: 26 months, 0 interest
• Personal loan: 27 months, 500 interest

Debt-free in 8 years 8 months, total interest about 8,528. Nothing extra was paid, and still the last debt drags on for almost nine years because the student loan minimum barely covers its interest.

Way 2: same 810 a month, but with rollover (snowball, 0 extra)

Same total payment, no extra money. The only change: when the medical bill is gone, its 50 moves to the next debt, then that debt's payment moves on, and so on.

Debt-free in 51 months, total interest 6,304. That is 53 months sooner and 2,200 less interest from zero extra dollars, just from not letting freed-up payments disappear back into the budget.

Way 3: rollover plus 200 extra a month

Two things stand out. The debt-free month is the same for snowball and avalanche: the total you pay each month is identical, so the pile shrinks at the same speed. And the interest gap, 673.88, comes almost entirely from one card at 24.99%. Avalanche kills it first, snowball leaves it running until month 14 while it keeps charging. (The custom order in the table also starts with the card, which is why it lands next to avalanche.)

What moves the date more than the method

Switching snowball to avalanche saved 674. Finding 100 more a month saved 1,011 and five months. Finding 300 more saved almost 3,000 and nearly two years. If you only have energy for one decision, make it the extra payment, then pick whichever order you will actually stick to.

Calculate your own numbers in Google Sheets

You do not need a template for the per-debt math. Put your debts in four columns (name, balance, APR, monthly payment) starting in row 2, then add two formulas.

Months to pay off one debt (balance in B2, APR in C2, payment in D2):

=NPER(C2/12, -D2, B2)

Interest you will pay on it:

=D2*NPER(C2/12, -D2, B2) - B2

Fill both down. If a debt is at 0% APR, NPER divides by zero, so wrap it: =IF(C2=0, B2/D2, NPER(C2/12,-D2,B2)). If the payment does not even cover the monthly interest, NPER returns an error, which is the spreadsheet telling you that debt never ends at that payment.

Order the list. For snowball, sort by balance ascending. For avalanche, sort by APR descending. Or leave the data alone and add a rank column:

=RANK(C2, $C$2:$C$20, 0)     ← avalanche priority (highest APR = 1)
=RANK(B2, $B$2:$B$20, 1)     ← snowball priority (smallest balance = 1)

That gives you Way 1 above: each debt on its own, which is already useful for spotting the debt that never ends. What these formulas cannot do is the rollover. When debt 1 is paid, its payment jumps to debt 2, which changes debt 2's months, which changes when debt 3 gets the bigger payment, and so on for every debt in the list. That is a month-by-month table, 120 rows deep, one block per debt, with the freed-up minimums flowing to the current target.

Building that table by hand is an afternoon, and it breaks the first time you add a sixth debt. That is the part I turned into a template.

Debt Payoff Tracker for Google Sheets and Excel

Type up to 25 debts in the yellow cells, pick Snowball, Avalanche or Custom from one dropdown, and the dashboard shows your debt-free date, total interest, the payoff order and what to pay on each debt this month. 120-month schedule, one-off extras in any month, a payments log for what you actually paid. No formulas to touch.

Get the tracker on Etsy →

Which one should you pick?

• One debt has a much higher rate than the rest (a card at 20%+ next to loans under 10%): avalanche. That is where the interest gap lives. In the sample, it is the whole 674.
• Rates are all within a few points of each other: the methods are nearly identical in cost. Take snowball for the early win.
• You have quit a payoff plan before: snowball. A debt gone in month 6 is the thing that keeps month 7 happening.
• A 0% promo ends on a known date, or a loan is from family: custom order. Put it where it needs to be and let the rest follow avalanche.
• Whatever you choose: set the rollover up so it happens automatically, and revisit the extra payment every few months. Those two decisions are worth more than the method.

See the tracker work

Two minutes: what you type, what is calculated, and how the method dropdown rebuilds the plan.

Need only the debt side? That is what this tracker does, on purpose. For income and bills there is a separate Annual Budget Spreadsheet and a Paycheck Budget that pair with it.

FAQ