Debt Avalanche vs Snowball

Both methods pay the minimum on every account and direct whatever is left over at a single target. They differ only in how that target gets chosen.

Avalanche takes the highest interest rate first, which minimizes total interest paid. On a typical mix of balances the advantage over snowball comes to a few hundred dollars across the life of the payoff, not thousands.

Snowball takes the smallest balance first, which closes individual accounts sooner. Gal and McShane studied the tradeoff in 2012 and found that the rate of accounts closed predicted whether people finished at all, better than the interest they saved. The gap between the two orderings is usually smaller than the gap between finishing and stopping.