Calculation, not advice. Verify with a professional before acting. Compare avalanche and snowball payoff strategies side-by-side. Pick this to compare avalanche against snowball ordering on the same set of cards; pick `calculate_cc_payoff` once a strategy is chosen and the need is a single payoff timeline with windfalls or fixed payments.
Returns months, total interest, payoff order, savings, total_balance, weighted_average_apr_pct, monthly_interest_now, and cost_breakdown array. When an arm is not projected to reach a zero balance, the savings.* fields for that arm carry status: "none" with value: null and an explanation, not a number.
savings.strategies_convergence separately discloses the avalanche/snowball arms' own convergence:
- "both_converge" (ordinary case),
- "worst_never_amortizes" (the losing strategy arm does not reach a zero balance in this projection but the winning arm does, so savings.best_vs_worst_months/interest carry status: "none"), or
- "neither_converges" (the WINNING strategy arm does not reach a zero balance either, so no dollar or month figure derived from either strategy arm is reportable).
lower_total_interest_strategy names whichever of avalanche or snowball has the lower total interest, or "tie" when the two arms' total interest and months are exactly equal. A "tie" can co-occur with savings.strategies_convergence="neither_converges". It reports only that comparison, never that either arm pays off.
chart_hints.title and chart_hints.annotations[0].label report a dollar figure only when the comparison they describe is Defined, and otherwise state plainly that no figure is reportable, matching the "none" status on the corresponding savings.* field. Unlike chart_hints, summary and savings.savings_summary hedge rather than decline a figure, and the two always carry the same sentence as each other: when the compared arm does not converge (savings.baseline_never_amortizes=true, or savings.strategies_convergence=worst_never_amortizes) but the winning side still does, both report a figure hedged as a floor, "saves at least $X and N months ..., so the true saving could be higher than reported". Only when strategies_convergence=neither_converges do summary and savings.savings_summary also state that no figure is reportable. No savings.* sentinel object carries a hedged floor in its value key; the only place a floor ever appears is the savings.savings_summary sentence.
This tool carries no domain-shaped warnings[].type entries (unlike calculate_cc_payoff); warnings[] here is exclusively validation disclosures emitted as warnings[].code, e.g. MINIMUM_PAYMENT_NOT_BINDING_IN_BASELINE plus the general portfolio findings (MANY_CARDS, HIGH_CARD_BALANCE, etc.) shared with every card-based tool.
The response includes `chart_hints` with rendering directives any client can use.
This tool takes no strategy, fixed_payments, full_schedule or per_segment parameter: it always compares avalanche against snowball over the full schedule, so all four are rejected as unknown_parameter.
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