Late payment interest calculator (UK + EU benchmark)

Estimate qualifying UK statutory interest on an overdue B2B invoice, or explore an explicitly non-country-specific EU Directive minimum benchmark. The EU result is not a statement of what a creditor may lawfully charge in any member state.

United Kingdom

The statutory rate is the Bank of England base rate on the reference date (30 June / 31 December) before your invoice became overdue, plus 8 points — fixed for the whole late period, accruing daily as simple interest. Currently 11.75%.

B2B (and business-to-public-authority) contracts only; consumer contracts are outside the Act. You can also claim fixed compensation per invoice: £40 (debt under £1,000), £70 (£1,000–£9,999.99), or £100 (£10,000+). Confirm eligibility and the date payment became late in the current GOV.UK guidance.

Recorded rate-selection coverage: overdue dates from July 1, 2015 through December 31, 2026. A supported overdue date fixes its recorded rate for the whole late period, so the payment/end date may be later. New overdue dates on or after January 1, 2027 are refused until the next official half-year rate is recorded.

European Union Directive minimum benchmark

Directive 2011/7/EU establishes a minimum framework for commercial late-payment interest. The illustration below adds eight points to this site's recorded ECB half-year benchmark (currently 2.4%) and re-segments the arithmetic when that benchmark changes. It does not select a member state's national reference base, statutory rate, eligibility rule, or remedy.

Benchmark only: the official EU country-rate table shows that national statutory rates can differ from this ECB-plus-eight illustration. Confirm the listed country rate and national implementing law before using a figure in a demand or claim. The current benchmark history supports start dates through December 31, 2026 and an end boundary through January 1, 2027, beginning January 1, 2016.

What this calculator does—and does not decide

The tool performs date-segmented interest arithmetic from the recorded reference-rate history. It does not decide whether a debt is a qualifying commercial transaction, whether a contract supplies a different substantial remedy, when an invoice legally became overdue, or which national rule applies to a cross-border dispute. Those are legal inputs, not calculator outputs.

• UK calculation: uses the recorded half-year reference rate plus eight points, fixed for the late period and accrued as simple daily interest.
• EU benchmark: adds eight points to the recorded ECB series and re-segments at each half-year change. It is deliberately labeled an illustration, not a national entitlement.
• Source coverage: the U.K. calculator refuses an overdue date whose applicable half-year rate is not recorded; after a supported overdue date selects the rate, that fixed rate can continue to a later payment date. The E.U. benchmark stops at its last recorded reference period because that illustration re-fixes over time.

Official authorities and source checks

Before sending a demand or filing a claim, compare the result with the GOV.UK late-commercial-payment guide, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, or Directive 2011/7/EU on EUR-Lex, as applicable. For EU claims, also use the official country-rate table. The Directive sets a minimum framework; each EU country implements it through national law.

Frequently asked questions