New York late fee calculator

Not as a civil usury cap on a true late charge. GOL section 5-501 and Banking Law section 14-a set 16 percent for a loan or forbearance of money. A late charge that was disclosed in advance, and that covers the cost of a late payment, has been treated as liquidated damages rather than interest. The Department of Financial Services has said as much in a banking interpretation. And if the annualized charge crosses 25 percent, criminal usury in Penal Law section 190.40 is still in the conversation.

Nine percent a year. CPLR 5001 lets you recover interest on a contract claim from the date of the breach, and CPLR 5004 sets that rate at 9 percent, except where another statute applies. A consumer debt case against a natural person is 2 percent under the 2021 change to section 5004. A business invoice is the 9 percent case. If your contract validly set a different rate, the contract rate is what you were owed before judgment. If it set nothing, do not demand 1.5 percent a month in the complaint. Demand 9 percent and show the days.

No. GOL section 5-521 says a corporation shall not interpose the defense of usury. The definition pulls in associations and joint stock companies with corporate powers. Subdivision 3 keeps criminal usury available, so a corporation can still attack a charge over 25 percent a year. There is also a narrow exception for some residential mortgage corporations. For an ordinary corporate client and an 18 percent late charge that was in the contract, civil usury is not their defense. An individual client is different and can still talk about civil usury if the charge is really a loan.

New York City Civil Court small claims go to $10,000. City courts outside the city, and some county arrangements, are generally $5,000. Town courts and village courts are $3,000. Nassau and parts of Suffolk have their own figures in between. There is no single 'New York small claims limit,' and a blog that prints one number is wrong for most of the state. Look up the court where the client can be sued before you pick a form. If you are over that court's number, you are in a regular civil part, still with the 6 year contract statute.

Six years. CPLR 213(2) gives six years for an action on a contractual obligation or liability, express or implied. The clock runs from the breach. On a missed invoice that is the due date, unless the contract says performance was due later. A partial payment can change the accrual, and it can also be a fact you have to prove. Six years is enough time to lose the file. Keep the invoice, the terms, and the sending email in one place the week you send it. Reconstructing them in year five is how good claims get cheaper.

You should not. A late charge is enforced as liquidated damages only when the client had notice before they incurred the debt. Adding it in a reminder is notice of a new demand, not notice that formed the contract. If the original invoice was silent, prejudgment interest at 9 percent under CPLR 5004 is the number with a statute behind it. Offer to waive even that if they pay the principal this week, if you want the relationship. Do not threaten 1.5 percent a month that appears nowhere on the PDF they already have.

No. 1.5 percent a month is 18 percent a year. Penal Law section 190.40 draws criminal usury above 25 percent. Courts have knocked out late fees that annualized past 25 percent, including some 5 percent a month rent charges that compound into a much higher number. Eighteen percent does not. That does not mean every 18 percent clause is reasonable. A fee that dwarfs the invoice, or that was never disclosed, can still fail as a penalty. Stay at or under 18 percent, write it down, and do not stack a second percent on top without doing the annualized math.

No general statute gives a business debtor a set number of grace days before a contracted late charge or before 9 percent interest. Your contract might. If it says net 30 with a 7 day grace, count from day 38. If it says net 30, the breach is day 31. Construction prompt payment statutes and state agency rules have their own clocks, and they are not the default for a private invoice. Use the grace field in the calculator only for a grace you already printed. Inventing one in the collection email is a gift.

The calculator cannot choose the state for you. If the contract says New York law, start there and expect an argument only if the clause is unfair or was never agreed. If the contract says nothing, a court may apply New York or New Jersey depending on where the work happened and where the parties are. New Jersey does not have one simple commercial invoice cap, and its silent rate is not New York's 9 percent. Do not send a New York CPLR citation to a New Jersey company with no governing law clause and call it settled.