Cengolio · Tools · Judgment interest
One rate frozen since 1993, one that breathes.
An English judgment earns 8 per cent, the figure a 1993 Order froze and no court may vary. A German judgment tracks the Basiszinssatz, five points above it, nine for a commercial debt, reset every half-year. This half-year the German commercial rate runs above the English one, and below £5,000 an English county court judgment can earn nothing at all.
One figure, read as pounds on the left and euros on the right; the comparison is the point, not the exchange rate.
English rate 8 per cent since 1 April 1993, SI 1993/564; s. 17 JA 1838 in force as at 8 July 2026. German Basiszinssatz 1.52 per cent from 1 July 2026, Bundesbank. Checked 17 July 2026.
This states the two published post-judgment rates; it does not time your enforcement. Before judgment the English court awards interest at its discretion, s. 35A Senior Courts Act 1981; the German clock has usually been running since service of the claim, § 291 BGB, so the same trial length feeds the two judgments differently. Judgments on agreements regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 carry no statutory interest in the county court at all, art 2(3) Order 1991.
Instalment orders and successful enforcement pause or stop the English clock, art 4 of the 1991 Order. Both sides run simple interest, no compounding. This page counts months over twelve on both sides so the comparison stays clean; the pennies differ by daily-count convention. Whether interest is worth pursuing depends on solvency, enforcement routes and time, and none of it is arithmetic.