Nomzamo Khosa · Elevate Finance Partners · 15 September 2026 · 8 minute read

I’ve abandoned a “perfect” debt payoff plan more than once. Here’s what actually worked, what didn’t, and how to choose the method that fits your budget — and your life — in South Africa.

I started with avalanche once, exactly as the calculators recommend. It didn’t hold. I switched to snowball and made real progress — until my income got interrupted and the plan quietly fell apart. I’ve also extended finance terms and used payment breaks to survive hard months, and seen exactly what both cost me in interest. This post is the comparison I wish I’d read before any of that.

A Personal Note

I’ve tried to follow a “perfect” debt payoff plan more times than I’d like to admit, and abandoned it more times than I’ve actually finished one. I started with avalanche once — attacking the highest-interest debt first, exactly as every calculator recommends — and it didn’t hold. There was no early win to point to, and my motivation ran out before the maths ever caught up with me. I switched to snowball, and for a while, it worked. I watched a small debt disappear, then another, and the momentum felt real for the first time.

Then my income got interrupted, the way income does when you’re building something of your own, and the plan I’d been so consistent with quietly fell apart. At different points since, I’ve also extended finance terms to lower an instalment I couldn’t carry, and used payment breaks to get through a hard month — and I’ve seen, in black and white on my own statements, exactly how much both of those choices added back in interest over the life of the debt. Neither decision was wrong in the moment. Both cost more than the version of me making the plan on a good day ever accounted for.

I’m not telling you this for sympathy. I’m telling you because a plan is easier to follow when it’s honest about the wobbles, not just the ideal version of the story. This post is written from inside the mess, not from above it.

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other.” Romans 13:8 (ESV)

That’s not a verse meant to shame anyone carrying debt today. It’s a picture of the freedom we’re working toward — and the question this post answers is simply: what’s the fastest, most sustainable road to get there for you, specifically?

Two Methods, Same Goal

Both the snowball and avalanche methods work the same basic way: pay the minimum on every debt, then throw every extra rand at one target debt until it’s gone — then roll that payment onto the next one. The only difference is which debt you target first.

The Snowball Method

List your debts from smallest balance to largest, regardless of interest rate, and attack the smallest one first. Once it’s gone, you feel it — and that momentum carries into the next one.

Best for: people who need a visible, early win to stay motivated. If you’ve started and stalled on debt repayment before, the snowball’s psychology is often the difference between finishing this time and quitting again.

The Avalanche Method

List your debts by interest rate, highest to lowest, and attack the highest-interest debt first, regardless of balance size. Mathematically, this saves you the most money over time, because you’re cutting off the debt costing you the most, fastest.

Best for: people who are motivated by numbers and can stay consistent without needing an early emotional win.

A Worked South African Example

Say you’re carrying three debts: a R3,000 clothing account at 24% interest, a R15,000 personal loan at 18% interest, and a R45,000 vehicle-related debt at 12% interest. You have R2,000 a month available above minimum payments.

Under the snowball method, you’d attack the R3,000 clothing account first. It could realistically be gone within two to three months, giving you an early, motivating win — but you’ll have paid more in interest on the personal loan and vehicle debt while that account absorbed the extra payment.

Under the avalanche method, you’d attack the clothing account first anyway in this specific case, because it happens to carry both the smallest balance and the highest interest rate — but if the numbers didn’t line up this neatly, avalanche would send your extra payment toward whichever debt carried the highest rate, even if it had the largest balance, saving you more in total interest over the full payoff period.

This example is deliberately simple to show the mechanics. Your own numbers — and which debt actually carries your highest interest rate — will determine how much the two methods diverge for you.

A Word on Extending Terms and Payment Breaks

Neither snowball nor avalanche will hold up forever without a wobble — income gets interrupted, an emergency comes up, and it happens to almost everyone working through debt, not just the undisciplined. What I want to flag, from having done both myself, is what it actually costs when you extend a finance term to lower the instalment, or take a payment break to get through a hard month.

Both options can be the right call in the moment — sometimes survival matters more than optimisation. But both also add real interest back onto the debt you were working so hard to bring down, because you’re either paying for longer or the balance keeps accruing interest while you pause. Neither shows up as an obvious cost at the time you make the decision. It shows up months later, in the total you still owe. If you ever need to use either option, go back to your snowball or avalanche plan immediately afterward rather than letting the interruption become the new normal.

Which Fits a South African Budget?

In a South African context, this decision often comes down to what kind of debt is actually on your list. Clothing accounts and retail store cards frequently carry some of the highest effective interest rates you’ll encounter — often higher than unsecured personal loans — which can make the avalanche method more powerful than people expect once they actually compare the rates side by side.

But if your income is variable — common for freelancers, commission-based roles, and small business owners — the psychological win of the snowball method can matter more than the theoretical interest savings, because staying consistent matters more than being mathematically perfect. The debt you’re paying off consistently always beats the “optimal” method you abandoned in month three.

There’s no wrong answer here, and there’s no shame in whichever one keeps you moving.

Cancelling a Clothing Account? Consider Buy Now, Pay Later — With Discipline

If a clothing or retail store account is one of the debts on your list, it’s worth asking whether you actually need to keep it open once it’s paid off. Store accounts often carry both ongoing interest and a monthly service fee — on an item that’s usually already worn, and already depreciated to nothing, by the time you’ve finished paying for it.

Platforms like PayFlex and PayJustNow work differently. They typically split a purchase into three or four equal instalments over six weeks to three months, interest-free, provided you pay on time — the provider earns from the retailer, not from you, which is why there’s no interest charge as long as you stay disciplined about the schedule.

That discipline matters more than it used to. The National Credit Regulator has directed Buy Now, Pay Later providers to start reporting your payment behaviour to credit bureaus, with this data expected to begin appearing on South African credit profiles from February 2027. In practice, that means a missed BNPL payment is about to carry the same weight as a missed payment on any other credit product — it simply hasn’t, until now.

So if you’re considering replacing a clothing account with a BNPL platform, treat it exactly like the credit product it’s becoming: avoid stacking several BNPL commitments across different providers at once, and don’t mistake “interest-free” for “consequence-free.”

Your Debt Payoff Method Checklist

☐ List every debt with its current balance and interest rate

☐ Confirm your minimum payment on each

☐ Calculate how much extra you genuinely have available each month

☐ Be honest about whether you’ve abandoned a debt plan before, and why

☐ If you’ve ever extended a term or used a payment break, check what it actually added in interest

☐ If you need an early emotional win to stay committed → snowball

☐ If you’re consistent regardless of visible progress and want to minimise interest → avalanche

☐ Whichever you choose, automate the extra payment so it isn’t a monthly decision

☐ If replacing a clothing account with BNPL (PayFlex, PayJustNow), commit to paying on time — missed payments will soon affect your credit score too

Doing the Maths Without the Guesswork

Comparing snowball versus avalanche properly means running your actual balances and interest rates through both scenarios — which is tedious to do by hand and easy to get wrong.

That’s exactly why I built a Debt Freedom payoff calculator — with both Snowball and Avalanche modelling — into the Elevate My Finance app, launching 21 September. You’ll be able to plug in your real debts and see, side by side, how many months and how much interest each method costs you, so you’re choosing with your eyes open rather than guessing.

I’ve opened 30 free lifetime spots for early users, and there are still spots open. Start your 360° Financial Check-Up and claim yours here: checkup.elevatefinancepartners.online

Take It Further: Debt Freedom Foundations

The calculator will tell you your numbers. It won’t build the habits that keep you on the plan once life interrupts it — the part I fell off more than once myself. That’s what my free Debt Freedom Foundations course is for: a step-by-step walkthrough of building and actually sticking to a debt payoff plan, whichever method you choose.

Start Debt Freedom Foundations →

A Closing Word

I abandoned my own plan more than once before I finished it. The best debt payoff method isn’t the one that looks most impressive on paper. It’s the one you’ll actually still be following in month nine, even after a term extension or a payment break knocks you sideways for a while. Choose honestly, not aspirationally — and if you fall off the plan, get back on it. That’s the whole game.

Reduce what you owe. Grow what you own.

Blessings & Abundance,

Nomzamo

Elevate Finance Partners

NCA for F&Is · RE5 · COB 1/2/3 · National Certificate: Banking Services Advice

Need Guidance Building Your Debt Payoff Plan?

If you’d like help mapping your specific debts onto the method that actually fits your budget and your psychology, a Financial Clarity Consultation can walk through it with you directly.

Or WhatsApp directly on 073 509 8750 — I respond personally.

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Nomzamo Khosa is a financial educator — not a financial advisor. The content shared on Elevate Finance Partners is intended for general educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. For personalised debt guidance, WhatsApp 073 509 8750.

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