Cengolio · Tools · Late payment interest
One invoice. Two statutory rates.
England legislated first, the EU followed, Germany transposed, and since Brexit the two figures drift on their own. Enter the amount owed and the days in default: the German and the English statutory claim appear side by side, interest plus the fixed sum. Commercial debts only; consumer transactions run on different rules.
These are the statutory rates for commercial debts, not an assessment of any claim. Whether and from which day default runs is a question of law, § 286 BGB on one side, the Act’s thirty-day fallback on the other, and none of it is arithmetic. The parties’ contract can set its own rate; when it does, different limits apply in each system.
Statutory interest is simple on both sides, counted by day. An English clause that compounds it meets § 248 BGB in Germany, and the compounding, not the rate, is what falls. Both reference figures reset twice a year: the Basiszinssatz on 1 January and 1 July (Bundesbank), the English reference rate is the Bank of England base rate standing on 31 December and 30 June (Bank of England).