The debt avalanche method usually costs less in total interest, since it pays your highest rate balance first. The debt snowball method usually feels easier to stick with, since it clears your smallest balance first. Enter your real numbers below to see both plans compared side by side before you choose.
Add every credit card, line of credit, and loan you're carrying along with its balance, interest rate, and minimum payment. Set how much extra you can put toward debt each month, and the calculator shows the exact month each method gets you to zero and what each one costs you in interest.
Canadian households owed $1.80 in credit market debt for every dollar of household disposable income in the first quarter of 2026, the sixth straight quarterly increase, according to Statistics Canada. Most credit cards in Canada charge somewhere between 19.99% and 23.99% on carried balances, while the Bank of Canada has held its own policy rate at 2.25% since September 2026. That gap between what your card charges and what a lower rate loan or line of credit charges is exactly what the avalanche method is built to take advantage of.
Add every debt you're carrying, set what you can pay each month, and see the debt free date and total interest for both methods at once.
Smallest balance first
Highest interest rate first
Every debt in this calculator accrues interest the same way a real credit card or loan does: your annual rate divided by twelve, charged against whatever balance is left that month. Your payment covers that interest first, then whatever is left over reduces the balance. Snowball and avalanche do not change that math. They only change the order your balances get paid off in, and that order changes how much interest piles up before each one disappears.
Say you're carrying $2,000 in medical debt at 8% interest, a $3,000 line of credit at 11.99%, and $5,000 on a credit card at 22.99%, for $10,000 in total debt. Your minimum payments add up to $300 a month, and you can put $150 extra toward debt on top of that.
With snowball, you'd clear the medical debt first, then the line of credit, then the card, and be debt free in 35 months, paying about $2,734 in total interest. With avalanche, you'd hit the credit card first since it carries the highest rate, then the line of credit, then the medical debt, and be debt free in 31 months, paying about $1,883 in total interest. Same debts, same monthly budget, and avalanche saves roughly $851 and finishes 4 months sooner, purely from the order the payments landed in.
If you can stick to a plan on the math alone, avalanche is the better choice. It puts more of every dollar toward the interest actually costing you money. Snowball is still worth choosing on purpose if clearing a whole balance fast is what keeps you making payments, since the method that you actually stay on beats the one you abandon in month four.
Neither method works if your minimum payments do not cover the interest building up each month, or if your total debt is high enough relative to your income that a calculator cannot fix it. In that case, a Licensed Insolvency Trustee, regulated by Canada's Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, can walk you through options like a consumer proposal that a spreadsheet or calculator cannot offer.
Sources: Statistics Canada, National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, Q1 2026 and Bank of Canada policy rate announcement, September 2, 2026.
getFlourish tracks each of your debts next to your regular paychecks and updates your debt free date automatically every time you log a payment, so you are not re-running a calculator every payday to see where you stand. Read more about how snowball and avalanche compare in practice, or see how getFlourish's planner works before you start your free 14 day trial.
Snowball pays off your smallest balance first, then rolls that payment into the next smallest one. Avalanche pays off your highest interest rate first instead. Snowball tends to feel easier to stick with because you clear a balance fast. Avalanche usually costs less in total interest over time.
Avalanche almost always costs less in total interest, since it targets whichever balance is charging you the most every month. The gap between the two methods grows when your interest rates vary a lot from debt to debt, and shrinks when your rates are already close together.
Yes. Each month it calculates interest on your remaining balance at your entered APR divided by twelve, adds that interest to the balance, then applies your payment, the same way a real credit card or loan statement compounds interest month over month.
Set your extra payment to zero and you'll still get a debt free date, as long as your minimum payments cover more than each debt's monthly interest. If a balance can never shrink at your current minimum, the calculator tells you to raise your payment instead of guessing.
Consolidation can lower your average interest rate if you qualify for a cheaper loan or line of credit, but it does not erase what you owe. If your balances are large enough that neither method gets you to zero in a reasonable time, a Licensed Insolvency Trustee can walk you through options like a consumer proposal.
getFlourish keeps your debt free date current as you pay, alongside your paychecks, savings goals, and bills, without ever asking for your bank login.
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