Get out of debt faster — and see what it saves you.
Works for any debt with a balance, an APR, and a monthly payment — credit cards, student loans, auto loans, personal loans. Add an extra payment amount and watch the payoff timeline collapse.
Quick start
Credit cards: 18-30%. Student loans: 4-8%. Auto: 5-12%.
What you're paying right now
What if you paid extra?
Adding $100/month gets you debt-free 1.8 years sooner and saves you $2,101 in interest you'd otherwise hand to the lender.
Avalanche vs snowball
If you have multiple debts, which to attack first?
Avalanche method — pay minimums on everything, throw extra money at the highest-APR debt first. Mathematically optimal — saves the most interest.
Snowball method — pay minimums on everything, throw extra money at the smallest balance first. Gives you wins faster, which keeps people motivated.
Both work. The "right" one is the one you'll actually stick to.
The math the credit card companies don't advertise.
A typical credit card charges 24% APR. On an $8,000 balance, that's about $160 a month in interest charges — money that does absolutely nothing for you. If your minimum payment is $250, only about $90 of it actually reduces your balance. The rest is rent on the borrowed money.
That's why minimum payments take forever. On that same $8,000 balance at 24%, paying only the minimum can take 4–5 years and cost $5,000+ in interest — meaning you actually pay $13,000+ for an $8,000 purchase.
Adding even $100/month extra usually cuts the timeline in half and saves thousands. The math works because every extra dollar attacks the balance directly, which means less interest accrues next month, which means more of next month's payment also goes to principal — a virtuous cycle.