Avalanche vs Snowball: Which Debt Payoff Method Actually Costs Less?
The short answer: the avalanche method — attacking the highest-interest debt first — always costs less in interest. The snowball method — attacking the smallest balance first — clears your first account faster. Run on the same $7,000 of credit card debt ($5,000 at 24.99% APR and $2,000 at 17.99%) with $400 a month to pay, avalanche costs $1,413.60 in interest and finishes in 21 months; snowball costs $1,793.23 and takes 23 months. That is a $379.63 difference — but snowball wipes out the first card in month 6 instead of month 15. Which one you should pick depends on how far apart your rates are and whether you have ever quit a payoff plan halfway. Below: both methods on identical numbers, when the math gap barely matters, a hybrid most guides skip, and the exceptions that re-order everything. For context on the rates used here: the Federal Reserve's G.19 consumer credit release puts the average credit card APR at 22.36% on accounts assessed interest in August 2026 (21.19% across ...