Avoiding the Debt Spiral: Warning Signs and First Aid
How to recognise trouble early, prioritise payments and get help.
5 min read · Loans & Credit
Life situations: Taking a loan
Debt problems usually build slowly.
Warning signs
- Using credit to pay running costs.
- Only paying minimums.
- Ignoring letters.
Example with default values. Open the calculator →
First aid
List all debts, prioritise rent, insurance and taxes, and talk to creditors early.
Get help
Prevention
Keep an emergency fund, avoid instalment plans for small purchases and check your budget every month. If your income drops, adjust your spending immediately instead of borrowing.
Free debt counselling exists in every canton. Test payoff strategies with the snowball vs. avalanche calculator.
Try it yourself: Debt Snowball vs. Avalanche
Change any input and the result updates instantly. Nothing you enter is sent to a server.
Snowball (smallest balance first): months30.0 months
- Snowball: total interest
- CHF 1'821
- Avalanche (highest rate first): months
- 30.0 months
- Avalanche: total interest
- CHF 1'821
- Interest saved by avalanche
- CHF 0.00