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A $6,500 balance at 21.99% paid at a flat $195 a month takes 52 months and $3,634 in interest — because $119 of that first $195 is interest before a single cent touches the balance. Send $200 more a month and the same card is gone in 20 months for $1,307. Flat is the generous reading: a real minimum is usually about 3% of the balance, so it shrinks as the balance does and the same card runs past twenty years. Put your own balance, rate and payment in and see both numbers; add the other cards if you want the whole picture.
Owing $6,500.00 · minimums $195.00 · interest this month $119.11
20 months
1 year, 8 months of payments
$1,307
Interest paid
$7,807
Paid altogether
$395
Every month but the last
An estimate, not advice, and not a quote from a lender. Interest compounds monthly at the rate you type. Minimums are treated as a fixed dollar amount: a real card minimum is usually the greater of about 3% of the balance and $10, so it falls as the balance does — which makes the minimums-only figure the optimistic one, often by years. The avalanche and snowball runs hold the total going out flat, so there a shrinking minimum changes only which debt the money lands on. All of it assumes nothing new goes on the cards, every payment lands, and no rate moves.
Head to head
Paying only the minimums — no extra, and nothing rolled over when a debt clears — takes 52 months and costs $3,634.39 in interest. This plan saves $2,327.06 and 32 months against it. That comparison, not the choice of order, is where the money is.
Avalanche and snowball run on identical balances, rates, minimums and extra — the only thing that changes between them is the order the money lands in. Minimums only changes two more things: no extra, and no roll.
This is arithmetic, not advice from a licensed advisor, and it cannot see your circumstances. Consolidation, a balance transfer, a lower rate or a conversation with a non-profit credit counsellor may all beat every line above — none of which a payoff calculator can tell you. Nothing you type here leaves the tab.
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