Best Free Credit Card Payoff Spreadsheet (Excel and Sheets)

It sure does! Just download the Credit Card Snowball from Etsy, and you'll be sent an email with two download links: one for Excel and one for Google Sheets.

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• The debt avalanche method

• The credit card snowball method

Some people swear by the snowball method. Others think the debt avalanche is best. But before we get too deep into the pros and cons—let’s be sure to define them.

What is the avalanche method? It’s pretty simple, actually—

• You line up your debts from the highest interest to the lowest interest.

• Start paying the highest interest debt first.

• Once you pay the high-interest debt off—move on to the next highest interest debt.

• Keep this going until you get to your last debt (the lowest-interest one) and pay that off to finish your credit card debt.

Mathematically, it makes sense. (The highest interest debts cost you the most money each month, so pay those suckers off first.) But is it really the best option?

What did we model our credit card tracking spreadsheet after? (By the way, want to see the difference between the snowball and the debt avalanche method? Check out our debt snowball vs. avalanche calculator.)

The debt snowball method

What about the credit card debt snowball method? Just like the avalanche method, the debt snowball method is pretty simple—

• Line up your credit card debts from smallest to largest.

• Start paying on the first (smallest) credit card.

• Once that’s paid off, pay the next one in line (the slightly bigger but new smallest debt).

• Then—when you pay that one off—move onto the next one.

• Keep going with this process until all the credit cards are paid off.

You might be wondering about interest rates—how do they play into this method? Quite simply—they don’t. The idea is to gain momentum on paying off your credit cards—

• Start with the smallest one and pay it off quickly.

• You feel good about yourself—and quickly tackle the next credit card debt.

• Then, you really feel like you’re gaining traction and put it into full gear—you pay off all your debts faster than you thought possible.

So, if you commit and work to pay off your credit card debt quickly, the interest really shouldn’t matter that much. The key is that you get started, stay committed, and polish off all the debt. The credit card snowball method is best at that.

Which way to pay off your credit cards is best then? The credit card snowball or the avalanche method? You’ve probably already caught my bias—

When it comes to paying off debt, momentum and progress are key. That’s why the credit card snowball is the best method for paying off your credit card debts.

(Don’t believe me? Even Harvard agrees!) And since the debt snowball method is the preferred choice of Harvard and myself, our credit card debt payoff spreadsheet is set up for it instead of the avalanche method.

1) Open a blank page in Google Sheets or Excel.

2) List your debts across the top with your balance, minimum payment, and interest rates.

3) Add a column for months and extra payments on the left-hand side.

4) Be sure to have columns for “payment amount” and “balance amount” for each debt.

5) Enter a calculation like the below to reduce the balance each month (by the payment amount)—or calculate it manually.

6) To include the interest incurred during the previous month, be sure to include a formula like the one below (taking 1/12 of the annual interest—since there are 12 months in each year):

7) Adjust the calculations at the point where each debt pays off (since you’ll need to have some dollars applied to the first debt—and then the remaining amount to the next debt).

8) Once you work your way through all the cells, you’ll have the appropriate Excel credit card payoff formulas—and your own credit card snowball worksheet.

Want to better understand how interest works on a credit card?

The APR is the yearly interest rate on your card. If you want to apply this interest daily (like the credit card companies do), take the total APR and divide it by 365 (the number of days in the year).

If you want to apply the interest monthly (which, frankly, is close enough for the purpose of the debt payoff tool), then take the APR and divide it by 12 (the number of months in a year). You’ll then take the current balance each month and multiply it by the monthly interest rate—to see how much interest you’ll owe in that month.

Setting up your own credit card snowball Excel is a pain. It seriously makes more sense to head to the Etsy page and buy a fully functioning template that will automate everything (for $3.99 max).

If you download one of the debt snowball spreadsheets, all you need to do is enter your debt amounts, interest rates, and minimum payments. It’ll take you, like, three minutes. (For real. The tool automatically calculates everything.)

How long will it take to pay off your credit card debts with the credit card payoff spreadsheet? Let’s use the tool and walk you through an example—

Let’s say the interest is 20%, and the minimum payment is $400. How long before the $15,000 credit card balance is fully paid off?

According to the multiple credit card payoff Excel calculator, the debt will be gone in 57 months (or roughly five years). Not great.

Keep reading to figure out how to pay that beast offway faster—

Alright, so here’s what this entire article is about. I mean, it’s certainly about the automated debt snowball calculator—but even more so, it’s about figuring out how to get out of credit card debt fast.

How can you pay off your credit cards fast? Paying off your credit cards is about just two things:

1. Putting as much money toward the debt right at the beginning.

2. Paying as much as you can toward the credit cards each month.

I could write a whole article about the first bullet (and another full post on the second), but we’re not going to go into depth on these items here. Here’s the condensed version—

If you want to get out of credit card debt fast, do whatever you can to drop a big dollar amount on those debts immediately.

• Some people have a bunch of stuff they could sell. (If this is you—do that.)

• Others have credit card debt, but they have $30,000 sitting in the bank for an emergency fund. (If this is you—knock your emergency fund down to $10,000, and then tackle the credit card debt with a vengeance until it’s all gone.)

Don’t dink around with transferring balances to cards with lower interest or trying to negotiate with the credit card companies—just suck it up and try to come up with a hefty payment to get an impressive start.

Remember our $15,000 credit card example above? It was going to take us 57 months to pay that off.

What if we could put $5,000 toward the debt immediately? How long would it take then?

According to the free credit card payoff spreadsheet, starting with an extra $5,000 payment would reduce your debt payoff time by 25 months (from 57 months to 32).

Another great way to pay off your credit cards quickly is by paying more every month (in other words, raising your monthly payments).

How do people find the money to increase their monthly credit card payment?

Again, mainly two ways:

• They reduce their monthly expense as much as possible. Put together your monthly expenses and then question everything. Do you really need it?

• And they do whatever they can to earn money—

  • Take on a side hustle.

  • Get a part-time job.

  • Or finally ask for that raise they have deserved for some time.

What if you can reduce your expenses each month and raise your income? You could probably put another $500-$600 toward your credit card debts each month.

What impact will increasing your monthly credit card payment have on your debt payoff?

Let’s continue with the $15,000 credit card debt example—

We already know that if we initially put $5,000 at our $15,000 debt, we could drop the payoff time to 32 months. But what if we could increase the monthly payment by $600? Then how quickly could we pay off that $15,000 credit card debt?

The credit card payoff spreadsheet says the timeframe would go down from 32 months to 11 months! Don’t believe me? Here’s the screenshot of the credit card payoff spreadsheet:

Don’t discount it. Boosting your monthly payment can make a huge difference in your credit card payoff date.

• Monthly budget template

• Weekly budget template

• Debt snowball spreadsheet - 32 debt

• Debt avalanche spreadsheet - 32 debt