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Interest and Fees on Loan Apps: The Real Math

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Loan app interest in the Philippines is quoted in four different units (daily, monthly, APR, and "effective"), often by the same lender on the same day. HoneyLoan's website says 0.4% per day while its App Store says 0.096%. Home Credit publishes its rate three ways, from 2.32% to 102% a year. This guide teaches the one skill that makes the market readable: converting every quote into a yearly figure, then checking the fees that ride on top. Every number below is quoted from lender disclosures checked September 16, 2026.

The conversion table: daily rates decoded

Daily rates look tiny and compute huge. The formula is daily rate × 365, simple annual math, our estimate throughout.

Daily rate A year later Who quotes it
0.025% ≈9.1% JuanHand (blog; basis unstated on homepage)
0.05% ≈18.25% VPlus (example; cap stated 18%)
0.096% ≈35% HoneyLoan (App Store)
0.0986% ≈36% Finbro (App Store example)
0.2% ≈73% Happy Cash (website)
0.4% ≈146% HoneyLoan (website)
1.0% ≈365% The theoretical ceiling of "1% a day" searches

Read that table twice and the market changes shape. The gap between 0.096% and 0.4%, both from HoneyLoan, is the difference between a moderate loan and one of the most expensive in our tables. Our dedicated page on one percent per day decodes the full ladder.

Monthly rates: better, with two traps

Monthly quotes convert by ×12: BillEase's 3.49% monthly is about 42% a year; MoneyCat's repeat ceiling of 11.9% monthly is about 143%; Cashalo's effective 12% monthly is about 144%. Two traps hide inside the framing.

First, the basis problem. JuanHand advertises "as low as 0.025%" without saying whether that runs daily, monthly, or yearly, a twelve-fold ambiguity its blog resolves only partly. Second, the term problem: MoneyCat's own pages disagree on whether a loan runs 65-180 days, 3-6 months, or 10-30 days, and a monthly rate multiplies by every month the term adds.

APR versus effective rate

Nominal rates understate cost; effective rates (EIR) include the compounding and fee effects. Home Credit is the case study: nominal 1.49-8.99% monthly on its disclosures page, with an average monthly EIR of 3.89%. Our recomputation puts that at roughly 58% a year, while the stores publish 30% to 102% APR. Compare offers by EIR where disclosed. Where it is not disclosed, use the lender's own worked example. The methodology page carries the formula, and the loan calculator runs it for you.

The fee stack: where the real margin hides

Interest is the headline; fees are the business. The published stack across our tables:

Fee type Published examples
Service fee at repayment Moca Moca 5-10% of principal; Cashalo 0.2% daily inside its 12% bundle; BillEase 0-10%
Processing fee Home Credit "up to ₱500" vs stores "3%, max ₱1,000, deducted"; BillEase folds it into the loan amount
Insurance-style add-ons Home Credit: up to ₱99 + ₱500 per month at the caps
Transaction charges Home Credit: ₱300 cash pick-up, ₱300 early repayment, ₱300 due-date change, ₱50 refund
Claimed-zero Mabilis Cash "transaction fee: 0"; HoneyLoan "no hidden fees"; JuanHand "zero processing fees"

Two patterns matter. Moca Moca's fee adds about 20 annualized points on a 180-day loan and 40 on a 91-day one, before interest. A low cap with a heavy fee is not a low price. The "zero-fee" claims deserve their own checklist too; our hidden fees page lists the five places fees hide in an otherwise "free" offer.

The caps that bound everything

Where disclosed, a regulator's ceiling frames all of it. Cashalo publishes a 5% monthly late-penalty cap and a 100% total-cost ceiling under SEC Memorandum Circular No. 14 of 2025. Kviku's frontend declares the same family of BSP caps: 6% nominal and 15% effective monthly interest, plus the 100% total rule. Charges beyond those bounds are themselves evidence. The late fees table tracks who publishes what.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate the real interest rate on a loan app?

Take the total repayment from your disclosure, subtract what you received, divide by what you received, and multiply by 365 over the loan days. That effective annual figure is the only fair comparison; the formula and worked examples are on our methodology page.

Is 1% per day on a loan app legal?

It computes to about 365% a year on simple math, and where the BSP-style caps that lenders declare apply, a 1%-daily interest charge would sit far above the 6% nominal monthly ceiling. Verify the app's license and your disclosure; our 1% per day decoder has the full ladder.

Why do loan apps advertise daily rates?

Because daily numbers sound small. The market's biggest published spread (HoneyLoan's 0.096% store rate against 0.4% on its website) shows how much framing matters. Convert first, compare second.

What fees do loan apps charge besides interest?

The published stack includes service fees of 5-10% at repayment (Moca Moca, BillEase band), processing fees up to ₱1,000 or 3% (Home Credit's store version), monthly add-ons up to ₱599 at Home Credit's caps, and transaction charges of ₱50-₱300. The hidden fees checklist covers where each one hides.

The bottom line for borrowers

The market prices in four units and hopes you compare in none of them. Convert daily to yearly. Do the same for monthly. Turn nominal into effective. Then read the fee stack twice, because that is where the real margin lives. Every number in this guide comes from lender disclosures checked September 16, 2026; the per-app breakdowns live in our rate series, and the ceiling context sits on the low-interest ranking.

Sources used for this review