Debt Payoff Plan (Snowball vs Avalanche)
Enter your actual debts (balance, interest rate, minimum payment) plus any extra you can throw at them each month, and get a calculated payoff plan comparing the Snowball method (smallest balance first) against the Avalanche method (highest rate first). You get the payoff order for each strategy, month-by-month timelines, total interest paid, and exactly how much interest and time the smarter option saves you. This is not a blank budget template; you put in your real numbers and get an analysed, arithmetic-checked plan back. Australian figures, plain-English commentary, and three practical moves to get debt-free faster.
The decision underneath this plan is small and expensive to get wrong: which debt gets the extra money each month. Order your debts smallest balance first and accounts disappear quickly. Order them highest rate first and you pay less interest overall. Snowball and avalanche usually land on different debt-free dates, and how wide that gap gets depends entirely on the way your balances and your rates line up. A$19 one-off buys a calculated plan that runs both orderings against your actual figures instead of a blank template you fill in yourself.
What comes back is a head-to-head: the payoff sequence under each method, a month-by-month timeline, the total interest each one costs, a debt-free date for each, and the months and dollars of interest that separate them. There is a recommended strategy with plain-English commentary, plus three practical moves to clear the balance faster. Turnaround is about five minutes, delivered on your order page and downloadable as Markdown you can print to PDF or paste into Word.
Snowball, avalanche, and how wide the gap really is
The snowball plan orders your debts smallest balance first and gives you the payoff sequence, the timeline and the total interest you would pay getting through it. The avalanche plan does the same thing ordered highest annual rate first. Both are built from one identical set of figures, which is what makes the comparison worth reading — the months and the dollars separating them are the actual price of choosing the ordering that suits you psychologically over the one that is cheaper.
Sometimes that price is close to nothing. Where your smallest balance also happens to carry your highest rate, the two orderings converge and the difference narrows to very little. That is a useful answer in itself: it says the ordering barely matters for you, and the extra monthly amount is where your leverage actually sits. The recommended strategy is drawn from your own spread rather than a house preference for one method.
This assumes you can already cover the minimums
The whole plan is built on top of your minimum payments, with the extra amount going on one debt at a time while the others keep ticking over. If meeting those minimums is itself the problem, a payoff schedule is not the right first step. The National Debt Helpline (1800 007 007) offers free, independent financial counselling in Australia and is a better place to start.
Amounts are handled in Australian dollars and the commentary is written for an Australian reader. It remains general information calculated from the figures you supply, not personal financial advice. It knows nothing about your income, your tax position, insurance or offset arrangements, so treat it as a decision-support document to review, and to take to a financial counsellor or adviser if your situation is complicated.
Every payoff month traces back to a figure you typed
Each number in the report is calculated with the arithmetic shown, so you can follow how a payoff month or an interest total was reached rather than trusting an output on sight. That works both ways. Nothing is linked, scanned or monitored, so the plan is only ever as accurate as the balances, rates and minimum payments you enter, and it is worth checking each one against a current statement before you do.
Two free AI revisions are included, which in practice is enough to correct a rate you keyed wrong or rerun the whole thing against a different extra-payment figure once you have seen what the first version says.
What you get
- Snowball plan: payoff order smallest-balance-first, timeline and total interest
- Avalanche plan: payoff order highest-rate-first, timeline and total interest
- Head-to-head comparison showing months and dollars of interest saved
- Debt-free date for each method and the recommended strategy for you
- Plain-English commentary plus 3 practical moves to clear debt faster
- 2 free AI revisions included
Turnaround: ~5 minutes. Delivery: On-page report + Markdown download (print to PDF / paste to Word).
Frequently asked questions
Can I put my mortgage, car loan or HECS-HELP debt in?
Any debt you can describe with a balance, an annual interest rate and a minimum monthly payment will model fine, so mortgages and car loans are no trouble. HECS-HELP is the one to be careful with: it is indexed rather than charged interest, and repayments come out of your income at a set rate, so entering it as an ordinary interest-bearing debt will not represent it accurately.
Snowball and avalanche came out almost identical for me. Has something gone wrong?
No, that is a real result. It usually means your smallest debt is also your highest-rate debt, so the two orderings put the same account first anyway. The comparison still earns its place by telling you the ordering decision is not the lever you thought it was.
What happens if one of my cards is on a balance-transfer or promotional rate?
You give one annual interest rate per debt, so anything that changes that rate later sits outside the model — rate rises, annual card fees, promotional periods ending and late fees are not captured. If you are on a promotional rate that expires, enter the rate you expect to be paying once it does, otherwise the timeline will read more optimistically than reality.
Is anything connected to my bank or card accounts?
Nothing is linked, scanned or monitored. The plan is calculated purely from the debts you list and the extra amount you nominate, which is also why it comes back in about five minutes instead of days.
What do the two revisions actually cover?
They are regenerations of the same report, and two are included at the A$19 price. Most get spent on a rate keyed wrong, a debt left off the list, or a second look at a different extra-payment amount. They are not a switch to a different product.
Will it keep tracking my balances as I pay them down?
It will not. This is a one-off purchase rather than a subscription, and there is no monitoring behind it, so what you get is a snapshot built from the figures as they stand on the day you enter them. Once your balances have moved far enough that the schedule no longer matches, the plan has to be rebuilt from the newer numbers.