What interest rate applies if we never agreed on interest?

Not agreeing a rate does not mean going without. Where the parties fixed one, it survives the breach and keeps accruing rather than stopping on the due date. Where nothing was ever discussed, which describes most money between friends, California supplies a default of ten percent annually running from the moment repayment was missed, for obligations formed since the mid-1980s. Neither of you needs to have contemplated it and it does not need to appear in any writing. It attaches automatically, and the only common reason people go without it is not knowing it is there.

The amounts justify the attention. Ten percent on $6,000 left outstanding for two years is roughly $1,200, which on a claim this size often decides whether the afternoon in court was worthwhile. Whether you actually receive it comes down entirely to presentation. Set out the principal, the date repayment was due, the rate, the number of days elapsed and the resulting figure as separate lines, with the total at the bottom. A judge who can follow that in a few seconds will grant it. A judge handed a single number with interest folded invisibly inside will usually award what can be verified, which is the principal, and disregard the remainder as unexplained.