# Maximum interest rate by state, 2026 > Legal interest rate, general usury ceiling and judgment rate for all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, with the governing statute for each. Compiled from primary sources and reviewed 16 August 2026. Source: https://www.paidnice.com/usury-laws-by-state Publisher: Paidnice Last reviewed: 16 August 2026 Jurisdictions: 51 ## How to read this Every state sets more than one rate, and quoting the wrong one is the common error. - **Default legal rate**: applies when the parties agreed no rate in writing. - **General usury ceiling**: the most a rate agreed in writing may be. A written agreement beats the default rate; it never beats the ceiling. - **Judgment rate**: applies once a court enters judgment, replacing the contract rate from that date. 13 jurisdictions set no general ceiling at all on a rate agreed in writing: Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming. Where a cell reads "see rule", the statute ties the figure to a benchmark that moves and no single percentage is correct. The rule is given in that state's section below. State usury ceilings do not bind every lender. Under the National Bank Act and Marquette Nat. Bank v. First of Omaha (1978), a national bank may charge the rate allowed by its home state to borrowers anywhere, so a card or loan issued from Delaware, South Dakota or Utah can lawfully exceed the ceiling in the borrower’s own state. Section 521 of DIDMCA (1980) extends the same rate export to state chartered federally insured banks, though several states have opted out of it. Federal credit unions are capped separately by the NCUA. The Military Lending Act caps most consumer credit to service members and dependants at 36% MAPR regardless of state law. ## All jurisdictions | State | Default legal rate | General usury ceiling | Judgment rate | Business exemption | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Alabama | 6% | 8% | 7.5% | Amount based | | Alaska | 10.5% | see rule | 6.75% | Amount based | | Arizona | 10% | None | 7.75% | No exemption | | Arkansas | 6% | 17% | 5.75% | No exemption | | California | 7% | 10% | 10% | Purpose based | | Colorado | 8% | 45% | 8% | No exemption | | Connecticut | 8% | 12% | 10% | Entity based | | Delaware | see rule | see rule | 8.75% | Amount based | | District of Columbia | 6% | 24% | 5% | Amount based | | Florida | see rule | 18% | 8.06% | Amount based | | Georgia | 7% | 16% | 9.75% | Amount based | | Hawaii | 10% | 12% | 10% | Purpose based | | Idaho | 12% | None | 5% | No exemption | | Illinois | 5% | 9% | 9% | Entity based | | Indiana | 8% | None | 8% | Purpose based | | Iowa | 5% | see rule | see rule | Entity based | | Kansas | 10% | 15% | 7.75% | Purpose based | | Kentucky | 8% | see rule | 6% | Amount based | | Louisiana | see rule | 12% | 7.5% | Entity based | | Maine | 6% | None | see rule | No exemption | | Maryland | 6% | 8% | 10% | Entity based | | Massachusetts | 6% | None | 12% | No exemption | | Michigan | 5% | 7% | 4.959% | Entity based | | Minnesota | 6% | 8% | 4% | Amount based | | Mississippi | 8% | see rule | see rule | Entity based | | Missouri | 9% | 10% | 9% | Entity based | | Montana | 10% | see rule | 9.75% | No exemption | | Nebraska | 6% | 16% | 5.97% | Entity based | | Nevada | see rule | None | see rule | No exemption | | New Hampshire | 10% | None | see rule | No exemption | | New Jersey | 6% | 16% | 4.5% | Amount based | | New Mexico | see rule | None | 8.75% | Entity based | | New York | 9% | 16% | 9% | Entity based | | North Carolina | 8% | 16% | 8% | Amount based | | North Dakota | 6% | see rule | see rule | Entity based | | Ohio | see rule | 8% | 7% | Entity based | | Oklahoma | 6% | see rule | see rule | No exemption | | Oregon | 9% | see rule | 9% | Amount based | | Pennsylvania | 6% | 6% | 6% | Purpose based | | Rhode Island | 12% | see rule | 12% | Amount based | | South Carolina | 8.75% | None | 10.75% | No exemption | | South Dakota | 12% | None | 10% | No exemption | | Tennessee | 10% | see rule | 8.75% | No exemption | | Texas | 6% | 10% | 6.75% | Purpose based | | Utah | 10% | None | 5.51% | No exemption | | Vermont | 12% | 12% | 12% | No exemption | | Virginia | 6% | 12% | 6% | Purpose based | | Washington | 12% | see rule | see rule | Entity based | | West Virginia | 6% | 8% | 6.25% | Purpose based | | Wisconsin | 5% | None | 1% | Entity based | | Wyoming | 7% | None | 10% | Purpose based | ## By jurisdiction ### Alabama - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year where there is no written contract - **General usury ceiling**: 8% per year by written contract, but only on principal under $2,000. At $2,000 or more the ceiling is removed entirely. - **Judgment rate**: 7.5% per year. A judgment based on a contract action carries the rate stated in the contract instead. - **Current judgment figure**: 7.5%, judgments entered on or after 1 September 2011 - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. Not entity based. Section 8-8-5 lifts the ceiling for any loan, forbearance or credit sale with an original principal of $2,000 or more, for individuals, corporations, trusts, partnerships and associations alike. Most commercial credit clears that threshold and is uncapped. - **Statute**: Ala. Code § 8-8-1 (legal rate and 8% written ceiling); § 8-8-5 ($2,000 exemption); § 8-8-10(a) (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: The judgment rate was cut to 7.5% by Act 2011-521, for judgments entered on or after 1 September 2011. Consumer credit sits under a separate code, the Alabama Consumer Credit Act at Ala. Code 5-19-1 et seq. ### Alaska - **Default legal rate**: 10.5% per year - **General usury ceiling**: The greater of 10% or 5 points above the 12th Federal Reserve District rate on the day the contract or loan commitment is made. No ceiling at all where principal exceeds $25,000. - **Judgment rate**: 3 points above the 12th Federal Reserve District discount rate in effect on 2 January of the year the judgment is entered. A judgment founded on a written contract carries the contract rate where that rate is set out in the judgment. - **Current judgment figure**: 6.75%, judgments entered in calendar 2026 - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. No entity test. AS 45.45.010(b) simply does not apply where principal exceeds $25,000, so most commercial credit is uncapped. - **Benchmark**: Federal Reserve discount window primary credit rate, 12th District - **Resets**: Judgment rate annually on 2 January, then fixed for that judgment. The contract ceiling floats and fixes on the day the contract is made. - **Statute**: Alaska Stat. § 45.45.010(a) (legal rate); § 45.45.010(b) (ceiling and $25,000 exemption); § 09.30.070(a) (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: The current figure applies the statutory formula to the Federal Reserve primary credit rate of 3.75% in effect on 2 January 2026. Prejudgment interest runs at the same rate from service of process or written notice of injury. ### Arizona - **Default legal rate**: 10% per year unless a different rate is contracted for in writing - **General usury ceiling**: No ceiling. Any rate may be agreed in writing. - **Judgment rate**: The lesser of 10% or prime plus 1%, measured on the date the judgment is entered. The judgment must state the rate and it does not change afterwards. - **Current judgment figure**: 7.75%, judgments entered while prime is 6.75%, per H.15 released 14 August 2026 - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None needed and none found. Any written rate is enforceable, so there is no ceiling for a business borrower to be exempted from. - **Benchmark**: bank prime loan rate published by the Federal Reserve Board in H.15 - **Resets**: Fixed at judgment entry and never changes. The medical debt rate keys to the calendar week before the first bill. - **Statute**: Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 44-1201(A)(2) (legal rate, no ceiling); § 44-1201(B) (judgment rate); § 44-1201(A)(1) (medical debt) - **Worth knowing**: Proposition 209 added a separate medical debt regime in 2022, capping medical debt interest and judgments on it at the lesser of the weekly average one year constant maturity Treasury yield or 3%. ### Arkansas - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year where a contract does not specify a rate - **General usury ceiling**: 17% per year, flat. There is no separate consumer and non-consumer split. - **Judgment rate**: On a contract action, the contract rate or the Federal Reserve primary credit rate on the date of entry plus 2%, whichever is greater. On any other action, primary credit plus 2%. Capped by the 17% constitutional maximum. - **Current judgment figure**: 5.75%, non-contract judgments entered while the primary credit rate is 3.75% - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None found. The 17% cap reaches commercial and business purpose loans as well as consumer loans. The carve-outs are lender side: government units under Amendment 89 § 1, and federally insured depository institutions with their main office in Arkansas under § 2. - **Benchmark**: Federal Reserve primary credit rate (discount window) - **Resets**: Fixed at the judgment entry date, then constant. The 17% ceiling and the 6% legal rate do not move. - **Statute**: Ark. Code § 4-57-101(d) (legal rate); Ark. Const. Amend. 89 § 3 (17% ceiling); Ark. Code § 16-65-114(a) (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: Amendment 89, effective 1 January 2011, set the present 17% ceiling and removed the separate consumer bucket. Section 6(b) voids a usurious contract as to principal and interest, so an overcharge can cost the lender the debt itself. ### California - **Default legal rate**: 7% per year under the state constitution - **General usury ceiling**: 10% on loans primarily for personal, family or household purposes. For any other purpose, the higher of 10% or 5 points above the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco rate. - **Judgment rate**: 10% per year. Judgments entered on or after 1 January 2023 on medical expense claims under $200,000 and personal debt claims under $50,000 against natural persons carry 5%. - **Current judgment figure**: 10% - **Business borrowers**: Purpose based, the exemption turns on what the credit is for. Purpose based, not entity based. There is no corporate carve-out. The higher ceiling attaches to any loan not primarily for personal, family or household purposes, and a loan used primarily to buy, build or improve real property is deemed non-personal. A broad lender side exemption covers banks, building and loan associations, credit unions, licensed pawnbrokers and other licensed lenders. - **Benchmark**: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco advance rate, in practice the discount window primary credit rate - **Resets**: The non-consumer ceiling is measured on the 25th day of the preceding month and fixes at the contract date. The legal and judgment rates do not move. - **Statute**: Cal. Const. art. XV § 1 (legal rate and both ceilings); Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 685.010(a)(1) and (a)(2) (judgment rates); Cal. Civ. Code § 3289(b) (10% after breach of contract) - **Worth knowing**: The constitutional legal rate is 7%. The 10% figure most businesses meet is Civ. Code § 3289(b), which sets 10% after breach on a contract entered after 1 January 1986 that stipulates no rate, excluding notes secured by deeds of trust on real property. The non-consumer ceiling is currently 10% because the floating leg computes to 8.75%. ### Colorado - **Default legal rate**: 8% per year, compounded annually - **General usury ceiling**: 45% per year on any bond, bill, promissory note or other written instrument - **Judgment rate**: 8% compounded annually where no rate is specified, or the contract rate where one is. Appealed money judgments run on a rate certified each 1 January by the Secretary of State: 2 points above the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City discount rate, rounded to the nearest whole percent. - **Current judgment figure**: 8%, ordinary money judgments where the contract states no rate - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None found. The 45% ceiling applies whatever the borrower. The practical split runs the other way: consumer credit is capped far lower by the Uniform Consumer Credit Code, and business purpose credit sits outside the UCCC at the 45% ceiling. - **Benchmark**: Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City discount rate, for the appeals rate only - **Resets**: The appeals rate annually, certified each 1 January by the Secretary of State. Everything else is fixed. - **Statute**: Colo. Rev. Stat. § 5-12-101 (legal rate); § 5-12-103(1) (45% ceiling); § 5-12-102(4) (judgment rate); § 5-12-106(2) and § 13-21-101(3) (appealed judgments); § 18-15-104 (criminal usury) - **Worth knowing**: Certified appeals rate is 6% for 2026, 7% for 2025, 8% for 2024. Section 5-12-106(2)(b) floors the appeals rate at the 8% in 5-12-102(4)(b), but that floor does not reach tort judgments governed by 13-21-101, so an appealed non-tort judgment entered in 2026 runs at 8% and an appealed tort judgment at 6%. Criminal usury sits at the same 45% line and is a class 6 felony. UCCC consumer caps are 12% on non-supervised loans and 21%, or a tiered 36/21/15, on supervised loans. Tort prejudgment interest is 9%. ### Connecticut - **Default legal rate**: 8% per year in the absence of any agreement to the contrary - **General usury ceiling**: 12% per year - **Judgment rate**: 10% per year maximum, and discretionary. Section 37-3a sets a ceiling, not an automatic accrual rate. - **Current judgment figure**: 10%, maximum recoverable, subject to the court’s discretion - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes. Section 37-9(4) exempts loans to a for-profit corporation, statutory trust, LLC, partnership, association, or an individual engaged primarily in commercial, manufacturing, industrial or non-consumer pursuits, where the funds go into the business. From over $10,000 up to $250,000 the ceiling becomes the Banking Commissioner’s deposit index under § 36a-26 plus 17%. Over $250,000 there is no ceiling. Bank and credit union loans, bona fide real property mortgages over $5,000, government obligations, student loans and ERISA plan loans are also exempt. - **Statute**: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 37-1(a) (legal rate); § 37-4 (12% ceiling); § 37-3a(a) (judgment rate); § 37-9 (exemptions) - **Worth knowing**: Interest under § 37-3a is capped and discretionary, so 10% is a maximum rather than an entitlement. Section 37-3a(b) caps prejudgment and post-judgment interest at 5% on hospital service debt. Sections 37-3b and 37-3c cover negligence and condemnation separately. Interest may be computed on a 360 day year. Pawnbrokers sit outside § 37-4. ### Delaware - **Default legal rate**: 5 points over the Federal Reserve discount rate, as of the time from which interest is due - **General usury ceiling**: 5 points over the Federal Reserve discount rate. No ceiling at all where the amount loaned exceeds $100,000 and repayment is not secured by a mortgage on any borrower’s principal residence. - **Judgment rate**: 5 points over the Federal Reserve discount rate, or the contract rate, whichever is less, from the date of the judgment. - **Current judgment figure**: 8.75%, while the Federal Reserve discount rate is 3.75%, per H.15 released 14 August 2026 - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. Close to total, by two independent routes. Section 2301(c) removes any limit on loans over $100,000 not secured by a principal residence. Section 2306 bars any corporation, limited partnership, statutory trust, business trust, LLC, association or joint stock company from pleading usury at all, whatever the loan size. Section 2302 allows any agreed rate on secured demand loans of $5,000 or more against listed collateral. - **Benchmark**: Federal Reserve discount rate including any surcharge. Not the 90 day commercial paper rate. - **Resets**: Fixed at the date interest starts running, and at judgment entry for the judgment rate. The benchmark itself moves whenever the Federal Reserve changes the discount rate. - **Statute**: Del. Code tit. 6 § 2301(a) (legal, general and judgment rates); § 2301(c) ($100,000 exemption); § 2306 (entity bar); § 2302 (secured demand loans) - **Worth knowing**: The ceiling is 5 percentage points above the discount rate, currently 8.75%. The judgment rate is capped at the contract rate, so a low rate contract carries its own rate into judgment. Section 2301(d) adds prejudgment interest in Superior Court and Court of Common Pleas tort actions from the date of injury, conditional on a written settlement demand held open 30 days. The usury remedy under 2304(b) is treble the excess interest or $500, whichever is greater, if sued on within a year. ### District of Columbia - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year in the absence of express contract - **General usury ceiling**: 24% per year on a written instrument for the payment of money at a future time - **Judgment rate**: 70% of the IRC § 6621 underpayment rate, rounded to the nearest full percent, with exactly half a percent rounding up. Judgments against the District, its officers or its employees acting in scope: not more than 4%. - **Current judgment figure**: 5%, quarter beginning 1 July 2026 - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. Yes, and broad. Section 28-3301(d)(1)(B) removes any rate limit where the borrower receives the use of more than $2,500 and the loan is for a business, professional or commercial activity. It covers individuals, groups, corporations, unincorporated associations and partnerships. It does not apply where the loan is secured by the borrower’s residence or co-op interest. Section 28-3301(d)(1)(A) gives the same treatment to not-for-profit corporate borrowers over $2,500. - **Benchmark**: IRS underpayment rate set under IRC § 6621, being the federal short term rate plus 3 points for non-corporate taxpayers - **Resets**: Quarterly in practice, tracking the IRS rate. The statute does not say whether the rate on an entered judgment is fixed at entry or moves with each reset. - **Statute**: D.C. Code § 28-3302(a) (legal rate); § 28-3301(a) (24% ceiling); § 28-3302(c) (judgment rate); § 28-3302(b) (judgments against the District); § 28-3301(d)(1)(B) (business exemption) - **Worth knowing**: A court may lower the judgment rate for good cause, or on a showing that the debtor in good faith cannot pay, so 5% is a default rather than a guarantee. The 24% ceiling is close to meaningless for commercial lending given the $2,500 business exemption. ### Florida - **Default legal rate**: The rate set under § 55.03. Section 687.01 points straight at it, so the legal rate tracks the judgment rate and moves with it. - **General usury ceiling**: 18% per year simple on principal of $500,000 or less. Above $500,000 the ceiling rises to the § 687.071 criminal usury line of 25%. - **Judgment rate**: Set by the Chief Financial Officer as the average of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York discount rate over the preceding 12 months, plus 400 basis points. Published on 1 December, 1 March, 1 June and 1 September, effective the first day of the following quarter. - **Current judgment figure**: 8.06%, 1 July 2026 to 30 September 2026 - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. None by entity type. Relief is by loan size only: over $500,000 the ceiling moves from 18% to 25%. Section 687.03(2)(a) exempts FHA insured, VA guaranteed and GSE purchase commitment loans. - **Benchmark**: 12 month average of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York discount rate, plus 400 basis points - **Resets**: The published rate quarterly. An individual judgment is set at entry and then re-set each 1 January until paid, except clerk entered judgments under §§ 55.141, 61.14, 938.29 and 938.30, which are not adjusted at all. - **Statute**: Fla. Stat. § 687.01 (legal rate, pointing to § 55.03); § 687.02(1) and § 687.03(1) (18% ceiling and $500,000 threshold); § 55.03(1) to (3) (judgment rate); § 687.071(2) and (3) (criminal usury) - **Worth knowing**: Florida moved to the CFO formula in 1994 and the rate has been below 10% every quarter since at least 2022. Prior quarters: 8.25% from 1 April 2026, 8.44% from 1 January 2026, 8.65% from 1 October 2025, 8.90% from 1 July 2025. Criminal usury is a separate scale from the civil ceiling: over 25% is a second degree misdemeanour, over 45% a third degree felony. ### Georgia - **Default legal rate**: 7% per year simple where the rate is not established by written contract - **General usury ceiling**: 16% per year simple on principal of $3,000 or less. Above $3,000 there is no civil ceiling and any rate may be set by written contract. Charging more than 5% per month is a misdemeanour at every tier. - **Judgment rate**: Prime as published in Federal Reserve statistical release H.15 on the day the judgment is entered, plus 3%, fixed at entry. A judgment on a written contract stating a rate carries the contract rate instead. - **Current judgment figure**: 9.75%, judgments entered while prime is 6.75%, per H.15 released 14 August 2026 - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. None by entity type. Relief is by loan size only, at the $3,000 line. Section 7-4-2(c) preserves separate regimes for industrial loans, retail installment sales, credit cards, insurance premium finance, pawnbroking and motor vehicle sales. - **Benchmark**: prime rate published by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in H.15 - **Resets**: Fixed at judgment entry and does not float afterwards. - **Statute**: Ga. Code § 7-4-2(a)(1)(A) (legal rate); § 7-4-2(a)(2) (16% at $3,000 or less); § 7-4-18 (criminal usury); § 7-4-12(a) and (b) (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: Georgia sets no civil ceiling at all above $3,000. The 5% a month figure often quoted for that band is the § 7-4-18 criminal threshold, not a civil cap. Do not confuse the judgment rate with the Georgia Department of Revenue tax interest rate, which is also prime plus 3 but is set once a year under a different statute. ### Hawaii - **Default legal rate**: 10% per year. Obligations of the State carry the prime rate for each calendar quarter, capped at 10%. - **General usury ceiling**: 12% simple on consumer credit transactions other than credit cards, and on home business loans. 24% where the creditor is a chapter 412 financial institution other than a trust company or credit union. No ceiling on any transaction that is not a consumer credit transaction, a home business loan or a credit card agreement. - **Judgment rate**: 10% per year, and expressly a maximum. - **Current judgment figure**: 10% - **Business borrowers**: Purpose based, the exemption turns on what the credit is for. Yes, and effectively complete for non-consumer credit. Section 478-4(c) allows any rate not otherwise prohibited by law on a transaction that is not a consumer credit transaction, a home business loan or a credit card agreement. No dollar threshold and no entity test: the test is the character of the transaction. - **Statute**: Haw. Rev. Stat. § 478-2 (legal rate); § 478-4(a), (b) and (c) (ceilings and the non-consumer exemption); § 478-3 (judgment rate); § 478-11.5 (credit cards) - **Worth knowing**: The § 478-2 legal rate reaches money on an open account after 60 days from the last item, which is the branch that matters for trade receivables. ### Idaho - **Default legal rate**: 12% per year where there is no express written contract fixing a different rate - **General usury ceiling**: No general usury ceiling. The 12% is the default rate, not a cap, and applies only where there is no written contract. - **Judgment rate**: 5% plus the base rate in effect at judgment entry. The State Treasurer sets the base rate on 1 July each year as the weekly average yield on one year constant maturity US Treasury securities for the second week in June, rounded up to the nearest one eighth percent. - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None found and none needed. There is no ceiling to be exempt from. - **Benchmark**: one year constant maturity US Treasury, weekly average for the second week of June, rounded up to the nearest one eighth percent - **Resets**: Annually on 1 July, then fixed for the life of a judgment entered during that twelve month period. - **Statute**: Idaho Code § 28-22-104(1) (legal rate); § 28-42-201 (Idaho Credit Code, rate as agreed); § 28-22-104(2) (judgment rate formula) - **Worth knowing**: The base rate for judgments entered from 1 July 2026 is published by the Idaho State Treasurer. Apply the formula to the current base rate rather than relying on a figure carried from an earlier year. ### Illinois - **Default legal rate**: 5% per year - **General usury ceiling**: 9% per year on written contracts - **Judgment rate**: 9% per year. 6% where the judgment debtor is a unit of local government, a school district, a community college district or another governmental entity. 5% on consumer debt judgments of $25,000 or less. - **Current judgment figure**: 9%, general case - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, unlimited and with no dollar threshold. 815 ILCS 205/4(1)(c) allows any rate on a loan to a business association, a copartnership, or a person owning and operating a business as sole proprietor. Excluded: loans secured by an assignment of an individual obligor’s salary, wages or commissions, or by household furniture or goods used for personal, family or household purposes. - **Statute**: 815 ILCS 205/1 and 205/2 (legal rate); 815 ILCS 205/4 (9% ceiling); 815 ILCS 205/4(1)(c) (business exemption); 735 ILCS 5/2-1303 (judgment rates); 815 ILCS 123/15-5-5 (36% MAPR consumer cap) - **Worth knowing**: For covered consumer loans the operative ceiling is the Predatory Loan Prevention Act 36% MAPR, computed on the military APR method at 32 C.F.R. 232.4, not 9%. The Act carries its own exemption list at 815 ILCS 123/15-1-10. Section 735 ILCS 5/2-1303 also carries a 6% prejudgment rule for personal injury and wrongful death. ### Indiana - **Default legal rate**: 8% per year where the parties do not agree on a rate - **General usury ceiling**: No general ceiling on business credit. Section 24-4.6-1-102 is a gap filler for where the parties did not agree, not a cap on what they may agree. Consumer credit is capped separately by the Indiana Uniform Consumer Credit Code at IC 24-4.5. - **Judgment rate**: 8% per year, or the rate agreed in the original contract sued upon, which may not exceed 8% even where a higher rate was properly charged before judgment. - **Current judgment figure**: 8% - **Business borrowers**: Purpose based, the exemption turns on what the credit is for. The ceiling is absent for business credit rather than lifted by an exemption. IC 24-4.5 reaches only consumer credit, and the criminal loansharking chapter at IC 35-45-7-3 reaches other loan transactions only where unlawful force or the threat of force is used to collect. - **Statute**: Ind. Code § 24-4.6-1-102 and § 24-4.6-1-103 (legal rate); § 24-4.6-1-101 (judgment rate); IC 24-4.5-3-508(2)(a) and IC 24-4.5-3-201 (consumer caps); IC 35-45-7-2 and -3 (loansharking) - **Worth knowing**: Consumer caps under IC 24-4.5 are a tiered 36/21/15 on supervised loans and 25% on other consumer loans. The dollar brackets in those tiers are index adjusted by the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions, so the figures printed in the statute are not the current adjusted brackets. Criminal usury is twice the top supervised loan rate, and only within the IC 35-45-7-3 scope. ### Iowa - **Default legal rate**: 5% per year - **General usury ceiling**: A floating ceiling: 2 points above the monthly average ten year constant maturity interest rate on US government notes and bonds for the second preceding calendar month, rounded to the nearest one quarter percent. Published monthly by the Superintendent of Banking. 6.50% for August 2026. - **Judgment rate**: The one year Treasury constant maturity published in the Federal Reserve H.15 report settled immediately before the judgment date, plus 2%. Where a contract fixes the rate, the contract rate applies instead, capped at the § 535.2 ceiling. - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, and broad. Section 535.2(2)(a) lets a domestic or foreign corporation, a real estate investment trust, and any person borrowing for business or agricultural purposes agree in writing to any rate, bars them from pleading usury, and expressly supersedes any other interest rate or finance charge limit in the Code. - **Benchmark**: general ceiling keys off the ten year constant maturity Treasury plus 2 points. The judgment rate keys off the one year constant maturity Treasury plus 2 points. - **Resets**: General ceiling monthly, published before the first day of the following month, and then locked for the life of that written agreement including extensions and renewals. The judgment rate is fixed at judgment entry. - **Statute**: Iowa Code § 535.2(1) (legal rate); § 535.2(3)(a) and (3)(b) (floating ceiling); § 535.2(2)(a) (business exemption); § 535.3(1)(a) with § 668.13(2) and (3) (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: The 10% often quoted as the judgment rate is Iowa Code 535.3(2), which reaches only child, spousal and medical support arrears. The current judgment figure is distributed monthly by the state court administrator to the district courts. The business exemption threshold in 537.1301(47) is the Regulation Z figure at 12 C.F.R. 1026.3(b), indexed annually, not a fixed $25,000. ### Kansas - **Default legal rate**: 10% per year where no other rate is agreed - **General usury ceiling**: 15% per year on a written instrument for the payment or forbearance of money - **Judgment rate**: 4 points above the discount rate charged on loans to depository institutions by the New York Federal Reserve Bank as reported in the Wall Street Journal money rates column, measured as of 1 July. Judgments in limited actions carry a fixed 12%. - **Current judgment figure**: 7.75%, 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 - **Business borrowers**: Purpose based, the exemption turns on what the credit is for. Yes. Section 16-207(e)(5) disapplies the 15% cap to a business or agricultural transaction, meaning a loan or credit sale made primarily for purposes other than personal, family or household purposes. Also outside the cap: Kansas Mortgage Business Act transactions, UCCC consumer credit, qualified plan loans to participants and their families, and adjustable rate real estate notes. - **Benchmark**: federal discount rate, New York Federal Reserve Bank, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, measured as of 1 July - **Resets**: Annually on 1 July, and unusually the new rate applies to judgments rendered before that 1 July as well as after it. Kansas re-prices existing judgments each year rather than fixing the rate at entry. - **Statute**: Kan. Stat. § 16-201(a) (legal rate); § 16-207(a) (15% ceiling); § 16-207(e) (exemptions); § 16-204(e)(1) (judgment rate); § 16-204(e)(2) (limited actions); § 16-201(b) (tort prejudgment) - **Worth knowing**: Prior published rates: 8.25% for 2025 to 2026, 9.50% for 2024 to 2025, 9.25% for 2023 to 2024. Prejudgment interest in civil tort actions filed on or after 1 July 2023 is 2 points below the judgment rate, so 5.75% currently, but that figure is derived by statutory subtraction and is not separately published. Support judgments presume 10%, rebuttable. Consumer credit sits under the Kansas UCCC at K.S.A. 16a-1-101 et seq. The usury penalty is forfeiture of the excess plus an equal sum off principal plus the borrower’s attorney fee. ### Kentucky - **Default legal rate**: 8% per year - **General usury ceiling**: On a written obligation with original principal of $15,000 or less, the lesser of 19% or 4 points above the discount rate on 90 day commercial paper at the Federal Reserve Bank of the district where the transaction is consummated. Above $15,000, any rate. - **Judgment rate**: 6% compounded annually. A judgment on a contract, promissory note or other written obligation carries the rate in that instrument. Child support arrears carry 12% compounded annually. On unliquidated damages the court may set less than 6% after a noticed hearing. - **Current judgment figure**: 6%, judgments entered on or after 29 June 2017 - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. Yes, by two routes. Any written obligation with original principal over $15,000 may bear any rate, and § 360.010(2) says no Kentucky law limiting interest applies to it or to charges connected with it. Separately § 360.025(1) bars a corporation from pleading usury as a defense, and § 360.027 carries the same bar to limited partnerships and LLCs. - **Benchmark**: discount rate on 90 day commercial paper at the Federal Reserve Bank of the district, for the small loan ceiling only - **Resets**: The small loan ceiling tracks the Federal Reserve rate in effect, so it fixes at the contract date. The judgment rate does not float. - **Statute**: Ky. Rev. Stat. § 360.010(1) (legal rate); § 360.010(1)(a) and (1)(b) (tiered ceiling); § 360.010(2), § 360.025(1) and § 360.027 (business exemptions); § 360.040(1) to (4) (judgment rates) - **Worth knowing**: The judgment rate was cut to 6% by 2017 Ky. Acts ch. 17 for all judgments entered on or after 29 June 2017, and 12% now survives only for child support arrears. The usury penalty under 360.020(1) is forfeiture of the entire interest plus recovery of twice the interest paid. ### Louisiana - **Default legal rate**: The judicial interest rate under R.S. 13:4202. Louisiana has no separate fixed legal rate: the legal rate is the judicial rate. - **General usury ceiling**: 12% per year on conventional interest, and it must be fixed in writing. Exceeding it forfeits the entire interest contracted for. - **Judgment rate**: The Federal Reserve Board discount rate published in the Wall Street Journal, ascertained on the first business day of October, plus 3.25 percentage points. Set by the Commissioner of Financial Institutions for the following calendar year. - **Current judgment figure**: 7.5%, 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026 - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, by two routes with no dollar threshold. R.S. 9:3500(D) disapplies the ceiling to a loan made for commercial or business purposes, or deferring payment of a commercial or business obligation. R.S. 9:3509(A) lets a corporation, LLC, partnership in commendam, registered LLP, foreign limited partnership, ordinary partnership, or any person borrowing for commercial, business or agricultural purposes exceed the maximum conventional rate, and bars the usury claim or defense for that borrower and its co-makers, guarantors and endorsers. - **Benchmark**: Federal Reserve discount rate as published in the Wall Street Journal, plus 3.25 points - **Resets**: Annually. Ascertained on the first business day of October and effective for the whole of the following calendar year. - **Statute**: La. R.S. § 9:3500(B)(1) and (C)(1) (legal and conventional rates); § 9:3501 (forfeiture); R.S. § 13:4202(B) (judicial rate formula); R.S. § 13:4203 (tort prejudgment); La. Civ. Code art. 2000 (contract prejudgment); R.S. § 9:3500(D) and § 9:3509(A) (business exemptions) - **Worth knowing**: Prejudgment interest splits by claim type. In tort it attaches automatically from the date of judicial demand under R.S. 13:4203, with no need to plead it. On money obligations it runs from the date due at the agreed rate or, absent agreement, at the legal rate, under Civ. Code art. 2000. R.S. 9:3509(B) caps post default rate escalation on fixed rate simple interest commercial loans at 18% or the contract rate plus 3 points for loans of $250,000 or less, and 21% or contract plus 3 above that. Prior year judicial rate: 8.25% for 2025. ### Maine - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year, and narrower than it looks: it applies to a loan made by a financial institution where there is no written agreement setting a different rate. - **General usury ceiling**: No general usury ceiling for commercial or business credit. Maine has no across the board usury statute. Consumer credit is capped by the Maine Consumer Credit Code at Title 9-A: 30% on the part of the unpaid balance up to $2,000, 24% from $2,000 to $4,000, 18% above $4,000, and 18% flat on the entire loan where the amount financed exceeds $8,000. - **Judgment rate**: In actions involving a contract or note containing an interest provision, the contract rate or the formula rate, whichever is greater. In all other actions, the one year US Treasury bill rate plus 6%, where that benchmark is the weekly average one year constant maturity Treasury yield for the last full week of the previous calendar year. - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None needed. There is no general ceiling to be exempt from, and the Title 9-A ceilings reach only consumer or non-commercial credit, so business purpose credit sits outside them by definition. - **Benchmark**: one year constant maturity Treasury yield, weekly average for the last full week of the prior calendar year - **Resets**: Annually, keyed to the year in which post-judgment interest begins to accrue, then fixed for the life of that judgment rather than re-set each year. - **Statute**: 9-B M.R.S. § 432(1) (legal rate); 9-A M.R.S. § 2-401 with 9-B M.R.S. § 432(2)(A) (consumer ceilings); 14 M.R.S. § 1602-C(1)(A) and (B) (post-judgment); 14 M.R.S. § 1602-B(3) (prejudgment) - **Worth knowing**: The $30,000 split survives only as a legacy prejudgment rule at 8% for claims that accrued before 1 July 2003. Section 1602-C(1) requires the applicable rate to be stated in each judgment, except in small claims actions, so the figure comes from the judgment itself. Prejudgment interest uses the same benchmark plus 3 points rather than plus 6. ### Maryland - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year - **General usury ceiling**: 8% per year under a written agreement signed by the borrower. 24% where the loan is unsecured or secured by personal property other than a savings account, made on or after 1 July 1982, and meets the balloon payment and repossession conditions. Any rate on a loan secured by a first mortgage or first deed of trust on residential real property. - **Judgment rate**: 10% per year. A money judgment for rent of residential premises carries 6%. Delinquent property tax judgments carry the greater of the combined tax interest and penalty rates or 10%. - **Current judgment figure**: 10% - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, and broad. Section 12-103(e) allows any rate on a loan made to a corporation, on a commercial loan over $15,000 not secured by residential real property, and on a commercial loan over $75,000 secured by residential real property. The corporate branch has no dollar threshold, so any loan to a corporation is uncapped whatever its size or purpose. - **Statute**: Md. Const. art. III § 57 and Md. Code Com. Law § 12-102 (legal rate); Com. Law § 12-103(a)(1), (b) and (c)(1) (ceilings); Com. Law § 12-103(e) with § 12-101 (business exemption); Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 11-107 (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: The default written agreement ceiling is 8%. The 10% judgment rate is statutory rather than constitutional: the constitution fixes only the 6% legal rate and expressly lets the General Assembly override it. ### Massachusetts - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year, and only where there is no agreement and no provision of law for a different rate - **General usury ceiling**: None. Massachusetts has no general civil usury ceiling. It is lawful to contract for any rate of interest, subject only to the criminal usury line at 20%, which a lender can opt out of by notifying the Attorney General. - **Judgment rate**: 12% per year, or the contract rate in contract actions. Post-judgment interest runs at the same rate as the prejudgment interest in the award. - **Current judgment figure**: 12% - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None in the usury sense, and none needed, because there is no civil ceiling. The escape from the 20% criminal line is a registration rather than an entity test: ch. 271 § 49(d) exempts anyone who notifies the Attorney General of an intent to transact and keeps records, valid for two years. Section 49(e) exempts loans whose rate is regulated under other law. - **Statute**: M.G.L. ch. 107 § 3 (legal rate and absence of a civil ceiling); ch. 271 § 49(a), (d) and (e) (criminal usury and opt-out); ch. 231 § 6B (tort prejudgment); § 6C (contract prejudgment); § 6H (catch-all); ch. 235 § 8 (post-judgment) - **Worth knowing**: The rates split by case type and should not be flattened. Tort interest at 12% runs from commencement of the action under ch. 231 § 6B. Contract interest runs at the contract rate, or 12%, from the date of breach or demand under § 6C. Section 6H imports the § 6B rate rather than setting its own. Judgments against the Commonwealth in contract actions use ch. 231 § 6I. Interest is added by the clerk automatically. ### Michigan - **Default legal rate**: 5% per year - **General usury ceiling**: 7% per year if the parties stipulate in writing. A separate criminal ceiling of 25% simple applies under MCL 438.41. - **Judgment rate**: On a judgment rendered on a written instrument evidencing indebtedness with a specified rate, the instrument rate if it was legal when executed, capped at 13% per year compounded annually. On every other money judgment, 1% plus the average rate paid at auctions of five year US Treasury notes during the preceding six months as certified by the State Treasurer, compounded annually. - **Current judgment figure**: 4.959%, 1 July 2026 to 31 December 2026, from a certified five year Treasury average of 3.959% - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, two tier. MCL 438.61(2) allows any written rate on credit extended to a business entity by a chartered bank, savings bank, savings and loan association, credit union, insurance carrier or manufacturer’s finance subsidiary. MCL 438.61(3) allows any written rate up to the 25% criminal line where any other lender extends the credit. No dollar threshold. A natural person qualifies as a business entity by giving a sworn written statement of the business purpose. MCL 450.1275 separately bars a corporation from pleading usury where the excess rate is in a written agreement. - **Benchmark**: average interest rate paid at auctions of five year US Treasury notes, certified by the Michigan State Treasurer - **Resets**: Semiannually on 1 January and 1 July. Interest is recomputed at six month intervals running from the date the complaint was filed, so a single judgment accrues through a series of rates rather than one fixed rate. - **Statute**: MCL § 438.31 (legal rate and 7% ceiling); § 438.41 (criminal usury); § 600.6013(7) and (8) (judgment rates); § 438.61(1)(a), (2) and (3) (business exemption); § 450.1275 (corporate plea bar) - **Worth knowing**: The formula sits at MCL 600.6013(8); 2002 PA 318 moved it down from subsection (6), which some references still cite. The rate is identical either way, and was 4.725% for 1 January to 30 June 2026. MCL 438.31 cross-references a repealed 1948 corporate provision, the live one being MCL 450.1275. MCL 438.31c is narrow: it covers broker-dealer margin debits, first lien real property notes and land contracts. ### Minnesota - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year - **General usury ceiling**: 8% per year if agreed in writing. Exceeding it is usury and forfeits all interest, and interest may not be compounded. - **Judgment rate**: The one year constant maturity Treasury yield for the most recent calendar month, rounded to the nearest whole percent, or 4%, whichever is greater. Judgments over $50,000 finally entered on or after 1 August 2009 carry 10% per year until paid. - **Current judgment figure**: 4%, calendar year 2026, for judgments of $50,000 or less - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. Yes, size based. Section 334.01 subd. 2 removes any limit on the rate, points, finance charges or fees on a written contract signed by the debtor extending credit of $100,000 or more, with no purpose test and no entity test. Section 334.011 gives business and agricultural loans under $100,000 a ceiling of 4.5 points above the discount rate on 90 day commercial paper at the Federal Reserve Bank for the Minnesota district, unless the proceeds finance the borrower’s principal residence. - **Benchmark**: one year constant maturity Treasury yield, most recent calendar month, from the Federal Reserve Board statistical release - **Resets**: Annually. Determined on or before 20 December by the state court administrator, effective for the following calendar year. The 4% floor has pinned the rate for both 2025 and 2026. - **Statute**: Minn. Stat. § 334.01 subd. 1 (legal rate and 8% ceiling); § 334.01 subd. 2 and § 334.011 (business exemptions); § 549.09 subd. 1(c) (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: Judgments for or against the state or a political subdivision entered on or after 16 April 2010, and family court judgments entered on or after 1 August 2015, stay on the formula rate rather than the 10%. Section 334.011 uses a different benchmark from § 549.09 and the two should not be merged. Interest does not accrue on child support judgments from 1 August 2022. Prior published rate: 4% for 2025, 5% for 2024. ### Mississippi - **Default legal rate**: 8% per year, calculated by the actuarial method - **General usury ceiling**: The greater of 10% per year or 5 points above the discount rate on 90 day commercial paper at the applicable Federal Reserve bank. Largely academic given the $2,000 free contract carve-out below. - **Judgment rate**: There is no fixed statutory rate. A judgment founded on a sale or contract carries the same rate as the contract evidencing the debt. Every other judgment carries a rate set by the judge hearing the complaint, from a date the judge finds fair but no earlier than the filing of the complaint. - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Two. Entity borrowers, meaning any partnership, joint venture, religious society, unincorporated association, or domestic or foreign corporation, may agree to the greater of 15% or 5 points above the discount rate where principal exceeds $2,500. More broadly, any borrower of any kind may agree in writing to any finance charge where the original principal balance to be repaid exceeds $2,000. Both bar the usury defense. - **Benchmark**: discount rate on 90 day commercial paper at the applicable Federal Reserve bank, for the ceiling only. The judgment rate has no benchmark. - **Resets**: The ceiling fixes at the contract date. The judgment rate is set by the judge at entry. - **Statute**: Miss. Code § 75-17-1 (legal rate, ceiling and both exemptions); § 75-17-7 (judgments); § 75-17-25 (definition of finance charge) - **Worth knowing**: No judgment figure exists in statute. Mississippi leaves the rate to the contract or to judicial discretion. Separate rules apply to residential mortgages, keyed to a Twenty Year Constant Maturity Index, and to motor vehicle leases under 63-19-43. ### Missouri - **Default legal rate**: 9% per year on written contracts where no other rate is agreed - **General usury ceiling**: 10% per year, or the market rate if the market rate is higher. The market rate is the monthly index of long term US government bond yields for the second preceding calendar month plus 3 points, rounded to the nearest tenth. 7.99% for 1 July to 30 September 2026, so the operative ceiling is currently 10%. - **Judgment rate**: 9% per year on non-tort judgments, or the contract rate where the contract specifies more than 9%. Tort judgments carry the intended federal funds rate plus 5%. Tort prejudgment interest, available only after a qualifying certified mail demand, is the intended federal funds rate plus 3%. - **Current judgment figure**: 9%, non-tort judgments where the contract states no higher rate - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, broad. Section 408.035 allows any rate, fees and terms agreed in writing on a loan to a corporation, general partnership, limited partnership or LLC; on credit extended primarily for agricultural, business or commercial purposes; on a real estate loan other than a residential one; and on a loan of $5,000 or more secured solely by stock certificates, bonds, bills of exchange, certificates of deposit, warehouse receipts or bills of lading. - **Benchmark**: ceiling keys off the monthly index of long term US government bond yields plus 3 points. Tort judgments key off the intended federal funds rate. - **Resets**: The market rate quarterly, posted by the Director of the Division of Finance on or before the 20th of the last month of each quarter. The judgment rate is stated in the judgment and does not vary once entered. - **Statute**: Mo. Rev. Stat. § 408.020 (legal rate); § 408.030 (ceiling and market rate); § 408.035 (business exemption); § 408.040 (judgment rates) - **Worth knowing**: The 10% or market rule binds individual and consumer purpose borrowers. Missouri publishes no judgment rate table, and the tort judgment provision keys to a federal funds target that is a range rather than a single published number. Recent market rates: 7.68% Q2 2026, 7.64% Q1 2026, 7.82% Q4 2025, 7.92% Q3 2025. ### Montana - **Default legal rate**: 10% per year after money becomes due, absent an express written contract fixing a different rate - **General usury ceiling**: The greater of 15% or 6 points above the prime rate published by the Federal Reserve System in H.15 for bank prime loans, dated three business days before the agreement is executed. Prime plus 6 currently computes to 12.75%, so the operative ceiling is the 15% floor. - **Judgment rate**: The H.15 bank prime loan rate on the day judgment is entered, plus 3%, and it may not be compounded. The prime rate is set as of 1 January each year and remains in effect until 31 December. A judgment on a contractual obligation specifying a rate carries that rate. - **Current judgment figure**: 9.75%, judgments entered in calendar 2026, from a 1 January 2026 prime of 6.75% - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None found for entity type, loan size or purpose. The only carve-out is lender side: § 31-1-107(3) disapplies the ceiling to regulated lenders as defined in § 31-1-111. - **Benchmark**: bank prime loan rate published by the Federal Reserve System in H.15, for both the ceiling and the judgment rate - **Resets**: The judgment rate annually, set as of 1 January and in effect to 31 December. The ceiling fixes at the contract date using the H.15 prime three business days before execution. - **Statute**: Mont. Code § 31-1-106 (legal rate); § 31-1-107 (ceiling); § 31-1-108 (double interest forfeiture); § 25-9-205 (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: The prime plus 3 formula came in with Laws ch. 446; older references still carry the superseded wording. Tort claims are governed separately by 27-1-210. ### Nebraska - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year on the unpaid principal balance unless a greater rate is contracted for - **General usury ceiling**: 16% per year - **Judgment rate**: For judgments entered on or after 20 July 2002, 2 points above the bond investment yield of the average accepted auction price for the first auction of each annual quarter of 26 week US Treasury bills in effect on the date of entry. - **Current judgment figure**: 5.97%, effective 16 July 2026 - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, extensive. Section 45-101.04 lifts the 16% cap for loans to any corporation, partnership, LLC or trust and their guarantors and sureties; for any loan where the aggregate principal indebtedness is $25,000 or more; and for business or agricultural loans and real property secured loans made by financial institutions. Reverse mortgages, government guaranteed loans and securities backed demand loans are also outside it. - **Benchmark**: bond investment yield on the average accepted auction price for the first auction of each quarter of 26 week US Treasury bills, as published by the US Secretary of the Treasury - **Resets**: Quarterly at source, but fixed at judgment entry for any given judgment. The State Court Administrator distributes notice to all Nebraska judges, effective two weeks after the auction price is published. - **Statute**: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 45-102 (legal rate); § 45-101.03 (16% ceiling); § 45-101.04 (exemptions); § 45-103 (judgment rate); § 45-104 (12% on overdue written instruments and unsettled accounts) - **Worth knowing**: For a page about unpaid invoices, § 45-104 matters more than the 6% legal rate: it allows 12% on money due on any written instrument, and on unsettled account charges from the date of billing unless paid within 30 days. The judgment rate does not apply where a rate is specifically provided by law, or where the parties agreed a different rate in an oral or written contract. ### Nevada - **Default legal rate**: The prime rate at the largest bank in Nevada, as ascertained by the Commissioner of Financial Institutions on the preceding 1 January or 1 July, plus 2%. Not a flat 12%. - **General usury ceiling**: No ceiling. Parties may agree any rate, may compound, and may agree any other charges or fees. The one exception is a 36% APR cap on consumer credit extended to a covered service member or dependant. - **Judgment rate**: The same formula under NRS 17.130(2): the Nevada prime rate on the preceding 1 January or 1 July, plus 2%. The rate is then adjusted on each 1 January and 1 July thereafter until the judgment is satisfied, so it floats for the life of the judgment. - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None found and none needed. Nevada has no general usury ceiling for any borrower class. - **Benchmark**: prime rate at the largest bank in Nevada, ascertained by the Nevada Commissioner of Financial Institutions. A state ascertained figure rather than the national H.15 prime, though it tracks it. - **Resets**: Semiannually on 1 January and 1 July, for both the legal rate and the judgment rate. The judgment rate keeps re-pricing until satisfaction rather than fixing at entry. - **Statute**: Nev. Rev. Stat. § 99.040 (legal rate formula); § 99.050(1) (freedom of contract); § 99.050(2) (36% military lending cap); § 17.130(2) (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: The judgment rate is not fixed at entry: it re-prices every 1 January and 1 July, so a rate taken at judgment will not hold. Deferred deposit, high interest and title loans are regulated separately under NRS 604A. ### New Hampshire - **Default legal rate**: 10% per year on business transactions unless otherwise agreed in writing. Consumer credit transactions as defined in RSA 358-K:1, V are excluded from this paragraph. - **General usury ceiling**: No ceiling. Chapter 336 contains only RSA 336:1 and 336:2, and neither caps an agreed rate. New Hampshire has no general usury statute. - **Judgment rate**: A rate determined by the State Treasurer as the prevailing discount rate on 26 week US Treasury bills at the last auction before the last day of September, plus 2 percentage points, rounded to the nearest tenth. Determined by 1 December and in force for the following calendar year. It covers prejudgment interest as well. - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None found and none needed, since there is no general ceiling. Note the inverse: the 10% default in RSA 336:1, I applies to business transactions and expressly excludes consumer credit. - **Benchmark**: prevailing discount rate on 26 week US Treasury bills at the last auction before the last day of September - **Resets**: Annually. Determined by 1 December, transmitted to the administrative office of the courts, effective 1 January to 31 December. - **Statute**: N.H. Rev. Stat. § 336:1, I (business transaction rate); § 336:1, II (judgment rate formula); RSA 399-A:16 and 399-A:17 (36% APR cap on small, payday and title loans of $10,000 or less) - **Worth knowing**: The 10% in RSA 336:1, I reaches business transactions only, and consumer credit transactions as defined in RSA 358-K:1, V are excluded from that paragraph. Interest other than simple interest is permitted on a business transaction if agreed in writing. The judgment rate in paragraph II is a different figure from the 10%, set annually by the State Treasurer. ### New Jersey - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year - **General usury ceiling**: 16% per year where there is a written contract specifying a rate. The 30% and 50% figures often quoted are the criminal usury thresholds, not the civil ceiling. - **Judgment rate**: Set by court rule, not statute. For judgments not exceeding the Special Civil Part monetary limit at the time of entry, the average rate of return of the State of New Jersey Cash Management Fund (State accounts) for the preceding fiscal year ended 30 June, to the nearest whole or half percent. Above that limit, the same rate plus 2%. - **Current judgment figure**: 4.5%, calendar 2026, for judgments at or below the $20,000 Special Civil Part limit. 6.5% above it. - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. No entity exemption. New Jersey is unusual in giving corporations no civil carve-out from the 16% ceiling, only the higher 50% criminal threshold. Relief is by size and purpose under § 31:1-1(e): any rate on loans of $50,000 or more except those secured by a first lien on real property with one to six dwelling units, and 5 points above the Federal Reserve Bank of New York discount rate on business or agricultural loans of $1,000 or more. - **Benchmark**: State of New Jersey Cash Management Fund (State accounts) average rate of return for the fiscal year ended 30 June, reported by the Division of Investment in the Department of the Treasury - **Resets**: Annually, effective each 1 January. The tier is fixed by whether the judgment exceeds the Special Civil Part limit at the time of entry. - **Statute**: N.J.S.A. § 31:1-1(a) (legal rate and 16% ceiling); § 31:1-1(e) (size and purpose exemptions); N.J.S.A. § 2C:21-19(a) (criminal usury); N.J. Court Rule 4:42-11(a)(ii) and (a)(iii) (judgment rates); R. 4:42-11(b) (tort prejudgment); R. 6:1-2 (Special Civil Part limit) - **Worth knowing**: Tort prejudgment interest runs from institution of the action or six months after the cause of action arose, whichever is later, and is not allowed on recovery for future economic losses. ### New Mexico - **Default legal rate**: Not more than 15% per year in the absence of a written contract fixing a different rate. Section 56-8-3 sets a ceiling for that case rather than a fixed default. - **General usury ceiling**: No general ceiling on a rate fixed by written contract. Section 56-8-3 applies only in the absence of one. - **Judgment rate**: 8.75% per year from entry. Judgments based on tortious conduct, bad faith, or intentional or willful acts carry 15%. A judgment rendered on a written instrument carries a rate no higher than the instrument specifies. - **Current judgment figure**: 8.75%, standard rate. Tort, bad faith and willful conduct judgments carry 15%. - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, and broad. Section 56-8-9(B) disapplies every maximum rate law to a transaction in which a corporation, LLC or other business entity is a debtor. Section 56-8-9(C) allows any agreed rate on business or commercial loans for business or commercial purposes of $500,000 or more. Section 56-8-21 bars corporations, limited partnerships, limited partners and general partners from pleading usury. - **Statute**: N.M. Stat. § 56-8-3 (legal rate and absence of a written contract ceiling); § 56-8-4(A) (judgment rates); § 56-8-4(B) (discretionary prejudgment); § 56-8-9(B) and (C) and § 56-8-21 (business exemptions) - **Worth knowing**: Prejudgment interest is separate and discretionary: the court may award up to 10% from the date the complaint is served, weighing unreasonable delay by the plaintiff and any timely settlement offer by the defendant. A separate consumer regime caps loans of $10,000 or less at 36% APR under HB 132, effective 1 January 2023. Section 56-8-11.1, which appears in older datasets, is repealed. ### New York - **Default legal rate**: 9% per year, the CPLR rate courts apply to prejudgment and post-judgment interest. New York has no clean default contract rate: the 6% in GOL § 5-501(1) is displaced by the 16% prescribed in Banking Law § 14-a. - **General usury ceiling**: 16% per year civil. Criminal usury starts at 25%. - **Judgment rate**: 9% per year. Judgments on consumer debt against a natural person carry 2%, for judgments entered on or after 30 April 2022 and for interest accruing after that date on the unpaid portion of earlier judgments. - **Current judgment figure**: 9%, general case. Consumer debt judgments against a natural person carry 2%. - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, on two grounds. GOL § 5-521(1) bars a corporation from pleading usury, subject to a carve-back where the corporation’s principal asset is a one or two family dwelling and it was organized, or a controlling interest acquired, within six months before execution, and subject to the criminal usury defense being preserved. GOL § 5-501(6)(a) removes all civil rate limits on loans of $250,000 or more other than those secured primarily by a one or two family residence, and § 5-501(6)(b) removes even the criminal limits at $2,500,000 or more. - **Statute**: CPLR § 5004(a) (9% and the 2% consumer branch); § 5004(b) (consumer debt definition); § 5004(c) (transitional); N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 5-501(1) with N.Y. Banking Law § 14-a(1) (16% ceiling); N.Y. Penal Law § 190.40 (25% criminal usury); Gen. Oblig. Law § 5-521 and § 5-501(6) (business exemptions) - **Worth knowing**: The consumer branch came in with 2021 ch. 831, effective 30 April 2022. The practical ceiling for corporate lending is 25%, not 16%: between 16% and 25% a rate is civilly usurious but not criminal, and a corporation cannot raise the civil defense. Above 25% a corporation can defend under GOL 5-521(3), unless the loan is $2,500,000 or more. A contractual waiver of the usury defense executed before, at, or within 60 days after disbursement is void. GOL 5-501(3) sets a distinct regime for mortgages on one to six family owner occupied residences and for co-op apartment loans. ### North Carolina - **Default legal rate**: 8% per year - **General usury ceiling**: 16% per year on principal of $25,000 or less. Any rate agreed in writing above $25,000. The 16% is the current value of a monthly formula: the six month Treasury bill noncompetitive rate as of the 15th plus 6 points, rounded to the nearest half percent, or 16%, whichever is greater. The 16% floor has held continuously since 1 November 1984. - **Judgment rate**: 8% per year, the legal rate. In contract actions the amount awarded bears interest from the date of breach, and where the contract provides a rate applicable after judgment that contract rate governs. For consumer credit contracts the lower of the legal rate and the contract rate applies. - **Current judgment figure**: 8% - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. None by entity type or purpose. The only escape is loan size: any rate may be contracted for in writing where the principal exceeds $25,000. - **Benchmark**: latest published noncompetitive rate for six month US Treasury bills as of the 15th of the month, plus 6 points, with a 16% floor - **Resets**: The ceiling is announced and published by the Commissioner of Banks on the 15th of each month and applies to fixed rate loans made during the following calendar month. The 8% judgment rate does not reset. - **Statute**: N.C. Gen. Stat. § 24-1 (legal rate); § 24-1.1(a) (ceiling and $25,000 threshold); § 24-1.1(c) (monthly formula); § 24-5(a), (a1) and (b) (judgment rates); § 24-1.1A (home loans); § 24-1.2A(a) (equity lines) - **Worth knowing**: Two further ceilings sit outside that formula and are often mistaken for it: home loans at 15% under § 24-1.1A and equity lines at 16% under § 24-1.2A(a). Credit card and open-end loans are outside § 24-1.1 entirely. ### North Dakota - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year unless a different rate, not exceeding the § 47-14-09 maximum, is contracted for in writing - **General usury ceiling**: 5.5 points above the average rate on six month US Treasury bills in effect for North Dakota over the six months preceding the transaction month, computed and declared on the last day of each month by the State Banking Commissioner. Never less than 7%. Interest may not be compounded, and a minimum charge of $15 is allowed. - **Judgment rate**: The prime rate published in the Wall Street Journal on the first Monday in December, plus 3 percentage points, rounded up to the next half point, not compounded. A judgment on an instrument carries the rate in the instrument, capped at the § 47-14-09 maximum. - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, extensive. Section 47-14-09(2) disapplies the ceiling to loans to a foreign or domestic corporation, LLC, cooperative or trust; to a partnership, limited partnership or association that files a state or federal partnership return; to any loan or forbearance whose principal amounts to more than $35,000; to bona fide pawnbroking up to $10,000; and to loans by a lending institution regulated or funded by a state or federal agency. - **Benchmark**: ceiling keys off the six month US Treasury bill average over the preceding six months. The judgment rate keys off the Wall Street Journal prime rate on the first Monday in December. - **Resets**: The ceiling monthly, declared on the last day of each month. The judgment rate annually, determined by 20 December by the state court administrator and in force 1 January to 31 December, then fixed for that judgment. - **Statute**: N.D.C.C. § 47-14-05 (legal rate); § 47-14-09(1) (ceiling formula and 7% floor); § 47-14-09(2) and (3) (exemptions); § 28-20-34 (judgment rate); § 47-14-10 (usury penalty) - **Worth knowing**: The ceiling moves monthly, so apply the formula to the current figure rather than a rate carried from an earlier month. The Department of Financial Institutions publishes it. Section 47-14-10 makes an overcharge forfeit the entire interest plus 25% of principal, and lets a borrower who paid recover twice the interest paid plus 25% of principal. Child support arrears use the same judgment rate via 14-09-25. ### Ohio - **Default legal rate**: The rate per year determined under R.C. 5703.47. Do not confuse it with the 8% contract ceiling in R.C. 1343.01(A), which is a different number in a different statute. - **General usury ceiling**: 8% per year on a written instrument, subject to the R.C. 1343.01(B) exemptions. Criminal usury is a separate 25% line in R.C. 2905.21, not a civil ceiling. - **Judgment rate**: The R.C. 5703.47 rate in effect when the judgment was rendered, which then stays constant for the life of that judgment. A written contract providing a different rate displaces it. - **Current judgment figure**: 7%, judgments rendered in calendar 2026. The rate was 8% for 2025 and 8% for 2024. - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes. R.C. 1343.01(B)(1) lifts the 8% cap where the original principal exceeds $100,000. R.C. 1343.01(B)(6) lifts it on a business loan to a business association or partnership, or to a person owning and operating a business as sole proprietor, excluding loans secured by an assignment of personal salary or wages or by household furnishings or goods used for personal, family or household purposes. A loan qualifying under (B) has no statutory ceiling. - **Benchmark**: federal short term rate as determined under IRC § 1274, rounded to the nearest whole percent, plus 3 points - **Resets**: Annually. The Tax Commissioner determines the federal short term rate on 15 October each year, and the rounded rate plus 3% applies for the following calendar year. Fixed at judgment entry thereafter. - **Statute**: Ohio Rev. Code § 5703.47(A) and (B) (annual rate formula); § 1343.03(A) and (B) (legal and judgment rates); § 1343.01(A) and (B) (8% ceiling and exemptions); § 1343.03(C) (tort prejudgment); § 2905.21 and § 2905.22 (criminal usury) - **Worth knowing**: The Ohio civil ceiling is 8%. The 25% figure often quoted is criminal usury, which sits in the kidnapping and extortion chapter rather than the interest chapter. Because 1343.01(B) authorizes unlimited rates on business loans and on principal over $100,000, the "unless otherwise authorized by law" clause in 2905.21 does a great deal of work. R.C. 5703.47 is a tax department rate borrowed by the interest statutes, and it publishes more than one number: R.C. 5719.041 and 5731.23 use the rounded federal short term rate without the plus 3%. ### Oklahoma - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year in the absence of any contract as to the rate - **General usury ceiling**: Title 15 sets no ceiling of its own. Section 266 fixes the legal rate at 6% and then allows parties to agree any rate authorized by other law, so the operative ceiling comes from the statute governing that credit. Consumer ceilings sit in the Uniform Consumer Credit Code at Title 14A. - **Judgment rate**: The prime rate listed in the first Wall Street Journal edition published for the calendar year, certified to the Administrative Director of the Courts by the State Treasurer on the first business day after publication in January, plus 2%. Prejudgment interest uses a different benchmark: the average US Treasury bill rate of the preceding calendar year. - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None found in Title 15. Any business purpose relief sits inside the Title 14A definition of consumer credit rather than as an express carve-out, and was not verified. - **Benchmark**: Wall Street Journal prime rate, first edition of the calendar year, for post-judgment interest. Average US Treasury bill rate of the preceding calendar year for prejudgment interest. - **Resets**: Annually, fixed for the calendar year in which judgment is rendered, then re-set each 1 January on the unpaid balance. - **Statute**: Okla. Stat. tit. 15 § 266 (legal rate); Okla. Const. art. XIV § 2 and 14A O.S. § 3-201 (rate regulation); 12 O.S. § 727.1(I) (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: The whole Small Loans series at 15 O.S. 280.1 to 280.29 is repealed, as are sections 267 through 271 and 273. A reader given a figure from those sections is being quoted repealed law. Postjudgment and prejudgment interest run on different benchmarks under 12 O.S. 727.1(I). ### Oregon - **Default legal rate**: 9% per year where the parties have not agreed a rate - **General usury ceiling**: The greater of 12% or 5 points above the Federal Reserve discount rate on 90 day commercial paper, and only for business or agricultural loans of $50,000 or less. Oregon has no ceiling above that threshold. - **Judgment rate**: 9% per year. A judgment on a contract bearing more than 9% carries the rate provided in the contract as of the date of entry. - **Current judgment figure**: 9% - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. Inverted here. The ORS 82.010(3) ceiling applies to business and agricultural loans of $50,000 or less and does not reach larger ones, so loans above $50,000 are unrestricted. ORS 82.025 lists lender side exemptions: financial institutions, trust companies, consumer finance licensees, licensed pawnbrokers, National Housing Act lenders, first lien real property loans, large real property loans with substantially equal payments, government guaranteed loans and tax qualified retirement plan loans. - **Benchmark**: Federal Reserve discount rate on 90 day commercial paper in the district where the lender is located, for the ceiling only - **Resets**: Fixed at the contract date for the ceiling, and at judgment entry for the judgment rate. - **Statute**: Or. Rev. Stat. § 82.010(1) (legal rate); § 82.010(3) (ceiling); § 82.010(2) and (2)(e) (judgment rate); § 82.025 (exemptions) - **Worth knowing**: Medical malpractice judgments carry the lesser of 5% or 3 points above the Federal Reserve Bank discount rate. ### Pennsylvania - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year - **General usury ceiling**: 6% per year on loans of $50,000 or less where no express contract is made for a lower rate. Business loans of any principal amount, and obligations above the annually indexed base figure, are exempt. - **Judgment rate**: 6% per year. 42 Pa. C.S. § 8101 names no number: it directs interest at the lawful rate from the date of the verdict, award or judgment, and the lawful rate resolves to 6% through 41 P.S. § 202. - **Current judgment figure**: 6% - **Business borrowers**: Purpose based, the exemption turns on what the credit is for. Yes, and now unlimited. 41 P.S. § 301(f)(v) exempts business loans of any principal amount from the maximum lawful rate. Also exempt: any obligation with an original bona fide principal above the base figure, and obligations at or below it secured by a lien on real property other than residential real property. - **Benchmark**: Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, US All Items 1982-84 = 100, used to index the § 301 base figure. Separately the residential mortgage ceiling keys off the monthly index of long term US government bond yields for the second preceding calendar month plus 2.5 points, rounded to the nearest quarter percent. - **Resets**: The base figure annually on 1 January, published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. The residential mortgage ceiling monthly. The judgment rate is fixed. - **Statute**: 41 P.S. § 202 (legal rate); 41 P.S. § 201 (6% ceiling at $50,000 or less); 41 P.S. § 301(f) (exemptions); 41 P.S. § 101 (base figure); 42 Pa. C.S. § 8101 (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: Business loans of any amount are exempt: Act 57 of 2008 removed the $10,000 threshold that older references still carry. The section 301 base figure is not a fixed dollar amount. It is indexed annually by the Department of Banking and Securities, reaching $329,411 for 2026, $319,777 for 2025 and $312,159 for 2024, so any figure hard coded against it goes stale each January. ### Rhode Island - **Default legal rate**: 12% per year unless a different rate is expressly stipulated - **General usury ceiling**: The greater of 21% per year or 9 points above the domestic prime rate published in the Money Rates section of the Wall Street Journal on the last business day of the month preceding the later of the agreement date or a contractual redetermination date. - **Judgment rate**: 12% per year to the time of discharge - **Current judgment figure**: 12% - **Business borrowers**: Amount based, the exemption turns on the size of the principal. Yes. Section 6-26-2 removes any rate limit on a loan to a commercial entity where the amount loaned exceeds $1,000,000, provided repayment is not secured by a mortgage against the principal residence of any borrower and the entity obtains a pro forma methods analysis performed by a certified public accountant. - **Benchmark**: domestic prime rate as published in the Money Rates section of the Wall Street Journal. Not a Treasury bill. - **Resets**: Measured on the last business day of the month before the agreement date, so fixed at the contract date unless the agreement itself provides for repricing. - **Statute**: R.I. Gen. Laws § 6-26-1 (legal rate); § 6-26-2 (ceiling, benchmark and $1,000,000 commercial exemption); § 9-21-8 (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: The ceiling is prime plus 9, not the Treasury bill rate plus 9, and the two sit far apart. Duly licensed pawnbrokers are excepted from the ceiling. ### South Carolina - **Default legal rate**: 8.75% per year on accounts stated and on sums ascertained and due - **General usury ceiling**: Effectively none where the parties agree a rate in writing. The 6% in § 37-10-106 is a default that a written contract expressly agreeing another rate displaces, not a cap on agreed rates. - **Judgment rate**: The prime rate as listed in the first Wall Street Journal edition published for the calendar year for which damages are awarded, plus 4 percentage points, compounded annually. The Supreme Court confirms the annual prime rate by order each 15 January. - **Current judgment figure**: 10.75%, 15 January 2026 to 14 January 2027, from a Wall Street Journal prime of 6.75% in the 2 January 2026 edition - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None found as a distinct carve-out. The written agreement route in § 37-10-106 is open to any obligor, not only to businesses. - **Benchmark**: Wall Street Journal prime rate, first edition published for the calendar year - **Resets**: Annually, confirmed by Supreme Court order by 15 January, so the rate period runs 15 January to 14 January. - **Statute**: S.C. Code § 34-31-20(A) (legal rate); § 37-10-106 (6% default displaced by written agreement); § 34-31-20(B) (judgment rate formula) - **Worth knowing**: The formula has applied to all judgments entered on or after 1 July 2005 and produces 10.75% today. No cap or floor appears in the operative text of 34-31-20(B): it is prime plus four, uncapped. The rate compounds annually, which is unusual. South Carolina is often described as having no ceiling on non-consumer transactions, which is a reasonable reading of 37-10-106, though no statute states it in those terms. ### South Dakota - **Default legal rate**: 12% per year, the Category C rate, where an obligation to pay interest specifies no rate - **General usury ceiling**: None. SDCL 54-3-1.1 removes any maximum rate or usury restriction between or among persons, corporations, LLCs, estates, fiduciaries, associations or any other entities where they set the rate by written agreement, unless a maximum is specifically established elsewhere in the code. - **Judgment rate**: 10% per year, the Category B rate, from and after the date of judgment. Judgments from inverse condemnation actions carry the Category A rate of 4.5%. Real estate mortgages, Title 57A security agreements and support debts under § 25-7A-14 are excluded. - **Current judgment figure**: 10% - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. Not needed. SDCL 54-3-1.1 removes the ceiling for every kind of party alike. There is no entity test, no size threshold and no purpose test. The only condition is a written agreement. - **Statute**: SDCL § 54-3-4 with § 54-3-16 (legal rate, Category C); § 54-3-1.1 (no maximum); § 54-3-5.1 with § 54-3-16 (judgment rate, Category B); § 54-4-44 (36% APR cap on licensed lenders) - **Worth knowing**: South Dakota states two rate categories. The Category C rate of 12% applies where an obligation to pay interest names no rate, and the Category B rate of 10% applies from the date of judgment. ### Tennessee - **Default legal rate**: 10% per year. Section 47-14-103(3) sets maximum effective rates for transactions the chapter does not otherwise cover, rather than a separate default rate statute. - **General usury ceiling**: The formula rate: the lesser of 24% per year or 4 points above the average prime loan rate for the most recent week published by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Published as 10.75% on 11 August 2026. - **Judgment rate**: The formula rate less 2 percentage points, reset twice a year. Judgments entered between 1 July and 31 December take 2% below the formula rate published for June of that year; judgments entered between 1 January and 30 June take 2% below the rate published for December of the prior year. A judgment on a statute, note, contract or other writing fixing a lawful rate carries that rate instead. - **Current judgment figure**: 8.75%, judgments entered 1 January 2026 to 30 June 2026 per the Administrative Office of the Courts, and reported as 8.75% again from 1 July 2026 - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None found. Chapter 47-14 draws no corporate or business purpose carve-out from the formula rate. Section 47-14-103(1) preserves separate regimes for specific lender categories. - **Benchmark**: weekly average prime loan rate published by the Federal Reserve Board in H.15, with a hard 24% cap on the formula rate itself - **Resets**: The usury ceiling weekly, announced whenever prime changes. The judgment rate semiannually on 1 January and 1 July, then fixed at judgment entry. - **Statute**: Tenn. Code § 47-14-103(3) (legal rate); § 47-14-102 (formula rate definition) and § 47-14-103(2), published under § 47-14-105; § 47-14-121(a), (b) and (c) (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: The formula rate applies from 1 July 2026. Judgment interest is simple rather than compounding, and the definitions that govern it sit at 47-14-102. ### Texas - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year, beginning on the 30th day after the amount is due, where the creditor has not agreed a rate with the obligor - **General usury ceiling**: 10% baseline. Parties may agree in writing to the chapter 303 ceilings, computed by doubling the 26 week Treasury bill auction rate, floored at 18% and capped at 24%, or 28% for credit extended for a business, commercial, investment or similar purpose. Credit card agreements without a merchant discount are capped at 21%. - **Judgment rate**: On a judgment on a contract that provides for interest or a time price differential, the lesser of the contract rate or 18%. On every other money judgment, the Federal Reserve prime rate determined by the Consumer Credit Commissioner on the 15th of each month for the following month, floored at 5% and capped at 15%. - **Current judgment figure**: 6.75%, money judgments rendered in August 2026 - **Business borrowers**: Purpose based, the exemption turns on what the credit is for. No outright exemption. Business, commercial, investment or similar purpose credit gets a higher ceiling, 28% instead of 24%, under § 303.009(c). Entity type is irrelevant: purpose is the test. - **Benchmark**: judgment rate keys off the Federal Reserve prime rate with a 5% floor and a 15% ceiling. The usury ceilings key off the 26 week Treasury bill auction rate doubled, with an 18% floor and a 24% cap, or 28% for business purpose credit. - **Resets**: The judgment rate monthly, determined on the 15th for the following calendar month, then fixed for that judgment. The usury ceilings weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually under chapter 303. - **Statute**: Tex. Fin. Code § 302.002 (legal rate); § 302.001(b) with §§ 303.002, 303.003, 303.005 and 303.009 (ceilings); § 304.002 (contract judgments); § 304.003 (all other judgments); § 304.005 (accrual) - **Worth knowing**: Every other money judgment falls under § 304.003, which is prime based with a 5% floor and a 15% ceiling. The 15% in 304.003 and the 18% in 304.002 are different numbers in different statutes. The chapter 303 ceiling has sat at 18% for decades because the Treasury bill doubling computation stays below it; the weekly and monthly ceilings are both 18.00% for August 2026. ### Utah - **Default legal rate**: 10% per year unless the parties expressly specify a different rate - **General usury ceiling**: None. Utah Code 15-1-1(1) lets the parties to a lawful written, verbal or implied contract agree upon any rate of interest. Specific consumer regimes sit elsewhere, for example the Check Cashing and Deferred Deposit Lending Registration Act at Title 7 chapter 23. - **Judgment rate**: The federal postjudgment interest rate under 28 U.S.C. § 1961 as of 1 January of each year, plus 2%. A judgment under $10,000 in an action regarding the purchase of goods and services carries 10% plus that federal rate. A judgment rendered on a lawful contract conforms to the contract and bears the agreed rate. - **Current judgment figure**: 5.51%, calendar 2026, from a federal postjudgment rate of 3.51% as of 1 January 2026. The under $10,000 goods and services class is 13.51%. - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. Not applicable. There is no ceiling to be exempt from. - **Benchmark**: federal postjudgment interest rate under 28 U.S.C. § 1961, but sampled by Utah once a year on 1 January rather than weekly - **Resets**: Annually on 1 January. The rate in effect at the time of the judgment then remains the rate for the duration of that judgment. - **Statute**: Utah Code § 15-1-1(2) (legal rate); § 15-1-1(1) (no ceiling); § 15-1-4(1), (2)(a), (3)(a), (3)(b) and (4) (judgment rates) - **Worth knowing**: Utah does not track 28 U.S.C. § 1961 week by week. Section 15-1-4(3)(a) pins the sample to 1 January, so the Utah rate steps once a year and then freezes for each judgment. ### Vermont - **Default legal rate**: 12% per year computed by the actuarial method, except as specifically provided by law - **General usury ceiling**: 12% general, with nine category ceilings in 9 V.S.A. § 41a(b): 18% on single payment loans by Title 8 regulated lenders and federal savings and loan associations; 18% on the first $500 of a retail installment contract balance and 15% above; the agreed rate on a bank credit card account or revolving line of credit; 18% or 20% on motor vehicle and equipment loans by model year; 24% on the first $1,000 of other installment loan balances and 12% above, or 18% APR on the aggregate, whichever is higher; 18% on subordinate real estate liens; and 21% on retail charge agreements. - **Judgment rate**: 12% per year - **Current judgment figure**: 12% - **Business borrowers**: No exemption. None found in 9 V.S.A. chapter 4. - **Statute**: 9 V.S.A. § 41a(a) (legal rate); § 41a(b)(1) to (b)(9) (category ceilings); 12 V.S.A. § 2903(c) with V.R.C.P. 69 (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: Judgment interest sits in Title 12, not the Consumer Protection chapter that older references cite. The 12% figure is set for judgment liens by 12 V.S.A. 2903(c), and reaches ordinary money judgments through V.R.C.P. 69, which directs the clerk to set post-judgment interest at the maximum rate allowed by law. ### Virginia - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year - **General usury ceiling**: 12% per year, except as otherwise permitted by law - **Judgment rate**: 6% per year, except that a money judgment entered in an action arising from a contract carries the rate lawfully charged on that contract, or 6%, whichever is higher. The rate is fixed at entry and is not affected by later changes to the statutory rate. - **Current judgment figure**: 6% - **Business borrowers**: Purpose based, the exemption turns on what the credit is for. Yes, by purpose plus size rather than entity type. Section 6.2-317 bars any usury defense on a loan for business or investment purposes, meaning a loan not for personal, family or household purposes, where the initial amount is $5,000 or more. Corporate status by itself does nothing. A passive or active investment counts as a business or investment purpose. - **Statute**: Va. Code § 6.2-301(A) (legal rate); § 6.2-303(A) and (B) (12% ceiling and exceptions); § 6.2-302(A), (B) and (C) (judgment rate); § 6.2-317(A) and (B) (business exemption) - **Worth knowing**: Virginia moved from 8% to 6% in 2004. Section 6.2-303(B) lists further exceptions for consumer finance companies, short term lenders, motor vehicle title lenders, pawnbrokers and insurance premium finance. ### Washington - **Default legal rate**: 12% per year where the parties have not agreed a different rate in writing - **General usury ceiling**: The higher of 12% or 4 points above the equivalent coupon issue yield of the average bill rate for 26 week Treasury bills determined at the first bill market auction in the preceding calendar month. The Treasury branch has stayed well below 12% for many years, so the effective maximum has been 12%. - **Judgment rate**: Six branches. Written contract judgments providing for interest at a specified rate carry that rate where it is set out in the judgment. Child support: 12%. Tort judgments against a public agency: 2 points above the 26 week Treasury bill equivalent coupon issue yield. Tort judgments against individuals or other entities, and unpaid private student loan debt: 2 points above prime. Unpaid consumer debt: 9%. Everything else: the maximum rate permitted under RCW 19.52.020 on the date of entry. - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes. RCW 19.52.080 bars profit and nonprofit corporations, Massachusetts trusts, associations, trusts, general partnerships, joint ventures, limited partnerships and governments from pleading usury where the transaction is primarily for agricultural, commercial, investment or business purposes. It does not apply to a consumer transaction of any amount, consumer meaning primarily for personal, family or household purposes. - **Benchmark**: the usury ceiling and public agency tort judgments key off the 26 week Treasury bill equivalent coupon issue yield. Private tort and private student loan judgments key off the Federal Reserve prime rate. - **Resets**: Monthly for the floating branches, sampled from the preceding calendar month, then fixed at entry. The State Treasurer computes the rates each month and files them for publication in the Washington State Register. - **Statute**: RCW § 19.52.010 (legal rate); § 19.52.020(1) (ceiling); § 19.52.025 (monthly computation and publication); § 4.56.110(1) to (6) (judgment rates); § 19.52.080 (business exemption) - **Worth knowing**: A consumer debt judgment carries 9%, below the 12% usury ceiling, which is the branch most often missed. There is no single current rate: the residual branch tracks the RCW 19.52.020 maximum, published in the monthly Washington State Register, and the effective maximum has been 12% for many years. ### West Virginia - **Default legal rate**: 6% per year absent a written contract providing otherwise - **General usury ceiling**: 8% per year on written contracts. Up to 9% on loans on residential property secured by a first mortgage or deed of trust, subject to conditions and time limits. - **Judgment rate**: 2 points above the Fifth Federal Reserve District secondary discount rate in effect on 2 January of the year the judgment or decree is entered, floored at 4% and capped at 9%. Determined annually by the Administrative Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals, then constant for that particular judgment regardless of later benchmark changes. - **Current judgment figure**: 6.25%, judgments and decrees entered in calendar 2026, from a Fifth District secondary discount rate of 4.25% on 2 January 2026 - **Business borrowers**: Purpose based, the exemption turns on what the credit is for. Yes. Section 47-6-11 exempts debt incurred by loan, installment sale or similar transaction primarily for a business purpose, and business purpose additions to or refinancings of that debt. Where the debtor is a natural person the principal must be $20,000 or more. Business means activities generating gross income but excludes farming and agricultural activities by agricultural producers. - **Benchmark**: Fifth Federal Reserve District secondary discount rate, sampled on 2 January, plus 2 points, with a 4% floor and a 9% cap - **Resets**: Annually on 2 January, then fixed for the life of that judgment. - **Statute**: W. Va. Code § 47-6-5(a) (legal rate); § 47-6-5(b) and (c) (ceilings); § 47-6-11 (business exemption); § 56-6-31 (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: West Virginia’s business exemption excludes agriculture, the opposite of Washington’s, which expressly includes it. Section 47-6-5(e) requires quarterly reporting by banking institutions on the residential first lien loans made under subsection (c). ### Wisconsin - **Default legal rate**: 5% per year - **General usury ceiling**: Effectively none for loans made on or after 1 November 1981. The 12% ceiling in § 138.05(1)(a) is still on the books but § 138.05(8)(c) switches it off for every loan, refinancing, renewal, extension, modification or prepayment on or after that date, except forbearances primarily for personal, family or household purposes where the only charge is a late payment penalty. Consumer credit is governed instead by the Wisconsin Consumer Act at chs. 421 to 427 and 429. - **Judgment rate**: 1% plus the prime rate in effect on 1 January of the year the judgment is entered if entered on or before 30 June, or in effect on 1 July if entered after 30 June, as reported by the Federal Reserve Board in H.15. - **Business borrowers**: Entity based, the exemption turns on what the borrower is. Yes, and redundantly. Section 138.05(5) disapplies the section to loans to corporations or LLCs. Section 138.05(7) disapplies it to loans of $150,000 or more made after 26 May 1978 unless secured by an encumbrance on a one to four family dwelling the borrower uses as a principal residence. Both matter little in practice because § 138.05(8)(c) already switches the section off for post-1981 loans whoever the borrower is. - **Benchmark**: Federal Reserve prime rate as reported in H.15, sampled 1 January and 1 July - **Resets**: Semiannually on 1 January and 1 July, then fixed at judgment entry until paid. - **Statute**: Wis. Stat. § 138.04 (legal rate); § 138.05(1)(a) with the disapplications at § 138.05(5), (6), (7) and (8)(c); § 815.05(8), and § 807.01(4) and § 814.04(4) (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: The prime plus 1% formula in 815.05(8) came in with 2011 Wisconsin Act 69, replacing the flat rate older references still carry. The current figure is published by wicourts.gov. ### Wyoming - **Default legal rate**: 7% per year where there is no agreement or provision of law for a different rate - **General usury ceiling**: No general statutory ceiling on an agreed rate. Wyoming has no standalone usury chapter; rate regulation sits inside the Wyoming Uniform Consumer Credit Code at Title 40 chapter 14, which reaches consumer credit only. - **Judgment rate**: 10% per year from the date of rendition until paid. A decree or judgment founded on a contract where all parties agreed to interest at a certain rate carries the contract rate. Child support and maintenance installments that become judgments by operation of law on or after 1 July 1990 bear no interest. - **Business borrowers**: Purpose based, the exemption turns on what the credit is for. Not an express clause. The effect comes from scope: the UCCC applies to consumer credit, so business purpose credit falls outside the rate provisions entirely. - **Statute**: Wyo. Stat. § 40-14-106(e) (legal rate); § 1-16-102 (judgment rate) - **Worth knowing**: Section 1-16-102(b) gives the contract rate rather than 10% where a judgment is founded on a contract and every party agreed a certain rate. Child support and maintenance installments that become judgments by operation of law on or after 1 July 1990 carry no interest at all. Rate regulation for consumer credit sits in the Wyoming Uniform Consumer Credit Code at title 40 chapter 14 rather than in a usury chapter. ## Notes on completeness - 11 jurisdictions publish no current judgment figure. The rule is given instead, because inventing a number would be worse than omitting one. - Figures for a state whose ceiling floats are not printed. Apply that state's rule to the current benchmark. - General information, not legal advice. Check the current text of the statute before setting a rate. Interactive version, including a rate check and a benchmark calculator: https://www.paidnice.com/usury-laws-by-state