Overdue interest refers to the penalty interest caused by loans overdue, specifically refers to the overdue penalty interest of the borrower who fails to repay the loan according to the contract. Overdue interest is closely related to overdue loans and the credit problems of users.
Article 207 of the Contract Law stipulates: "If the borrower fails to repay the loan within the agreed time limit, it shall pay overdue interest in accordance with the agreement or relevant state regulations".
: Calculation method of overdue loan interest
First, according to the interest rate during the contract period. Within the performance period agreed in the loan contract, as long as it does not violate the provisions of the People's Bank of China on the upper and lower limits of the loan interest rate of financial institutions, and private lending is not higher than 4 times the bank loan interest rate, the interest paid by the borrower can be used to calculate the overdue interest of overdue loans according to the interest rate agreement.
Second, calculate the interest according to the relevant regulations of the People's Bank of China. This interest-bearing method still abides by the original loan interest rate during the performance of the loan contract, and the overdue interest in installments is not calculated when the interest rate is adjusted. For the interest rate of overdue loans, the overdue interest shall be collected by installments according to the interest rate adjusted in different periods determined by the People's Bank of China, and the overdue interest shall be collected by default interest according to a certain proportion, or by installments according to the default interest rate determined by the People's Bank of China. At the same time, during and after the performance of the contract, quarterly interest settlement is adopted (short-term loans can also be settled monthly within one year), and the quarterly interest settlement date is the 20th day at the end of the quarter. If the borrower fails to pay interest on time, compound interest shall be calculated.
Of the above two interest-bearing methods, the former is generally suitable for private lending, while the compound interest in the latter is not suitable for private lending. The latter is generally applicable to bank loan contracts, while the former is not prohibited by law.
The two interest calculation methods have their own characteristics. Collecting overdue interest according to the agreement can fully embody the principle of autonomy of the parties to the contract within the scope permitted by law, and the calculation method is simple. However, if the overdue period is long and the national interest rate is greatly adjusted, the interest charge may be too high or too low, which violates the spirit of fair civil law. Collecting overdue loan interest according to the relevant provisions of the People's Bank of China can appropriately reflect the overdue loan interest payable, but the implementation process is too cumbersome.