Car loan, student loan, credit card, personal loan — throw a little extra at it and see the actual date you're free.
Your required payment mostly feeds interest, especially early on. Every extra dollar skips the line and goes straight to principal — which shrinks next month's interest, which lets more of your normal payment hit principal too. It compounds in your favor for once.
Juggling several debts? The classic strategies are the snowball (smallest balance first, for motivation) and the avalanche (highest APR first, for math) — this tool works on one loan at a time, so run it on whichever debt your strategy says to attack.
Two things to check with your lender: that extra payments are applied to principal (not "next month's payment"), and that there's no prepayment penalty — rare on car and personal loans, but worth 30 seconds to confirm.
Estimates are for education, not financial advice. Assumes a fixed APR and monthly compounding.
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Give any loan — credit card, student loan, personal loan, car — its balance, rate, and payment, and this tool projects your debt-free date and the total interest you'll pay. Then it shows what happens when you add an extra amount each month: because the extra goes entirely to principal, it removes future interest and pulls your payoff date forward, often dramatically on high-rate debt.
A $8,000 credit-card balance at 22% with $200-a-month payments takes years to clear and costs thousands in interest. Bumping the payment to $300 can cut the payoff time roughly in half and save a large share of that interest. High interest rates are exactly where extra payments do the most work, which is why "avalanche" payoff — attacking your highest-rate debt first — saves the most money.
Avalanche or snowball?
Avalanche (highest rate first) saves the most interest. Snowball (smallest balance first) can be more motivating. Both beat minimum-only payments by a wide margin.
Do minimum payments ever pay it off?
Eventually, but slowly and expensively on high-rate cards, because so much of each minimum payment is interest. Adding even a small fixed amount changes the math a lot.
Should I consolidate?
A lower-rate consolidation loan can help if it genuinely lowers your rate and you don't run the balances back up. Compare the new rate and any fees to what you have now.