How this is calculated
Every route is run month by month against your actual balances. Interest accrues on each balance at one twelfth of its APR, minimum payments are applied, and whatever is left of the monthly budget goes to one target debt. The routes differ only in which target is chosen and what the money costs to borrow.
- Minimums only — each debt gets its minimum and nothing more. Freed payments are not redirected; you simply pay less each month. This row is the baseline, not a plan.
- Snowball — the surplus goes to the smallest balance first, then rolls forward.
- Avalanche — the surplus goes to the highest APR first, then rolls forward. This is always the cheapest of the two by arithmetic.
- Consolidation loan — the origination fee is treated as financed, so you borrow your total balance divided by one minus the fee. Nobody hands you the fee; it is deducted from the proceeds, which means you have to borrow more than you owe.
- Balance transfer — the transfer limit is filled from your highest-rate debts downward, the fee is added to the transferred balance, and that balance sits at 0% for the promotional months. During the promotion the surplus is aimed at the transferred balance so it clears before the cliff; afterwards, anything left reverts and the run continues on avalanche.
Plate II is the part nobody else shows. A consolidation offer does two things at once: it lowers your rate, and it lengthens your term. Those pull in opposite directions, and the marketing only names the first. The plate runs the same loan twice — once at the contractual payment, once at your current budget — and the difference between them is purely the cost of the longer term. The rate saving is measured against avalanche on your existing debts.
Worked example — the figures the page loads with.
$22,000 across five cards, minimums totalling $574, plus $250 extra: a budget of $824 a month. Avalanche clears it in 39 months for $9,644 of interest; snowball takes 40 months and $10,237. Paying the minimums and nothing more takes 87 months and $22,537 — more interest than the original debt.
The consolidation offer is 14.99% over 60 months with a 5% origination fee. To clear $22,000 you must borrow $22,000 ÷ 0.95 = $23,157.89; the extra $1,157.89 is the fee. The contractual payment on that is $550.80 — about $273 a month less than you are paying now, which is exactly why the offer is attractive.
Pay that $550.80 for sixty months and you hand over $33,048, of which $9,890 is interest. Pay your existing $824 against the same loan and it clears in 35 months for $5,545 of interest. The $4,345 difference is the price of the longer term, and it is entirely optional — the rate saving against avalanche is $4,099, so taken as offered the loan costs $1,404 more than simply carrying on.
What this does not account for
- Minimum payments that fall as balances fall. Real issuers recalculate the minimum every cycle, usually as a percentage of the balance with a floor. We hold your entered minimum flat, which makes the minimums-only route look better than it is — in reality it stretches years longer.
- Approval. Both offers assume you qualify at the rate quoted. Advertised consolidation rates are for the strongest applicants, and a transfer limit is set by the issuer after you apply, not by you.
- A missed payment. One late payment typically voids a promotional transfer rate immediately and can trigger a penalty APR on any card.
- Variable rates. Card APRs move with the prime rate. Everything here is modelled as fixed.
- New spending. Consolidating cards and then using them again is the single most common way this goes wrong. The model assumes the balances only go down.
- Hardship programmes, settlement and bankruptcy. A sixth route exists that no comparison site mentions: ask your issuer for its internal hardship programme. Rates of 0–6% for six to twelve months are common, it is free, and nobody earns a commission when you use it. Settled debt can also generate a 1099-C and a tax bill on the forgiven amount.
- Credit score effects of opening a loan or card, and of the utilisation change that follows a transfer.
Common questions
Snowball or avalanche?
Avalanche wins on arithmetic, every time, because it kills the most expensive money first. Snowball wins on completion rates in published behavioural research — clearing a whole account early is motivating in a way a spreadsheet is not. Look at the gap between the two rows above. If it is small relative to the total, take the one you will finish.
Why does the consolidation loan look worse than the offer letter?
Because the letter compares its payment against your payments, and this page compares its total cost against your total cost. A lower payment over a longer term is not a saving; it is a rescheduling, and Plate II prices it.
Should I transfer everything I can?
Only what you can clear before the promotion ends. Anything still sitting on the card at the cliff reverts to a normal card rate, and you will have paid a transfer fee for the privilege. The button above sets the transfer to the amount your budget can actually clear in the promotional months.
Is 0% financing really free?
The rate is; the fee is not. A 4% transfer fee on $12,000 is $480 up front, which is roughly two and a half months of interest at 24.99% — a good trade over eighteen months, a bad one if you clear the balance in three.
What if my budget is less than my minimums?
Then none of these routes work and the page will say so. That is the point at which a hardship programme, a non-profit credit counselling agency running a debt management plan, or advice on your state's protections becomes the right conversation — not a calculator.
Does paying off debt in a particular order affect my credit score?
Indirectly. Utilisation is measured per card and overall, so clearing one card to zero helps more than spreading the same money thinly. Closing the cleared account afterwards usually costs you a few points.