Debt Avalanche Method

The avalanche method sorts your debts by interest rate, highest first. You make the minimum payment on everything and send every spare dollar to the most expensive balance until it is gone, then roll that entire payment into the next one down the list.

It is the mathematically optimal approach. Interest accrues fastest on the highest rate, so killing that debt first removes the most costly dollar of interest available at every step — you finish sooner and pay less than under any balance-ordered plan.

Its weakness is patience. If your highest-rate debt is also your largest, the first payoff can be a year or more away, and plans that never deliver a visible win are the ones people abandon.

The gap between avalanche and snowball is usually smaller than either camp suggests — often a few hundred dollars on typical consumer balances. The strategy you actually finish beats the one that is optimal on a spreadsheet.

Sort by rate, not by lender or balance, and check whether any rate is promotional. A 0% balance transfer that reverts to 26% in four months belongs near the top of the list well before it resets.