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Snowball vs avalanche: which clears your debt faster

If you are paying off a store card, a credit card and a personal loan at the same time, the order you attack them in changes what you pay and how long it takes. Two methods compete for the job. One saves you the most money. The other keeps you going.

Updated 15 June 2026 · THL Property Group

Most people with several debts pay a bit extra on whichever one is bothering them that month, or spread the spare cash around. It feels productive. It is also slower and more expensive than picking an order and holding to it.

Two orders are worth knowing. They use exactly the same money each month. They differ only in which debt gets your spare cash first, and that one choice changes both the total interest and the finish date.

How both methods work

The mechanics are identical whichever you pick. You pay the minimum on every debt, every month. All your spare cash then goes onto one target debt. When that debt is gone, its whole payment, the minimum plus the extra, rolls onto the next target. The payments snowball as accounts fall away.

The only question is which debt is the target first.

• Avalanche goes after the highest interest rate first. It is the cheaper method every time, because it kills your most expensive debt soonest.
• Snowball goes after the smallest balance first. It usually costs a little more interest, and it clears a whole account quickly, which is the part that keeps people motivated.

The same debts, both ways

Say you owe three accounts and can put R4,050 a month towards them, which is R2,850 of minimums plus R1,200 spare:

Avalanche attacks the personal loan first, because 24.5% is the highest rate, then the store card, then the credit card. Snowball attacks the store card first, because R9,000 is the smallest balance, then the credit card, then the personal loan.

Avalanche saves R1,618 in interest and finishes a month sooner. That is the maths, and the maths always favours avalanche.

Snowball clears your first whole account in month 6, against month 25 for avalanche. Nineteen months earlier, you go from three debts to two, the store card gone and its R400 rolling onto the next account. The early clear saves you nothing in rands. What it does is keep you in the fight, and staying in the fight is what actually clears debt. For someone who has stalled before, that is easily worth more than R1,618.

So which one

Choose avalanche if numbers motivate you and you will not lose heart waiting two years for the first account to close. You pay the least and you finish first.

Choose snowball if you have tried before and given up, or if you need to feel progress to keep going. Be honest with yourself about which person you are.

The worst option is the one most people run by default: minimums everywhere, spare cash scattered, no target at all. Both methods beat that comfortably. Choosing one and holding to it matters far more than which one you choose.

One note on the rates above. South African store and clothing accounts often run past 22%, credit cards sit in the low twenties, and personal loans climb higher still, up to the ceiling the National Credit Act allows. The higher and more spread out your rates, the more avalanche pulls ahead, because the gap between your most and least expensive debt is exactly where its saving comes from.

List your own accounts in the Snowball vs Avalanche calculator to see both orders on your real balances, the interest each one costs, and the month each debt falls away.

Money Cat is an information tool, not financial or debt-counselling advice. If your minimum payments alone are already more than you can cover, that is a different problem, and a registered debt counsellor is the right person to call.