Short answer. Usually not. The Civil Code says that when you choose which of several debts your payment covers, the application cannot be made to debts that are not yet due. The exceptions are narrow: where the parties stipulate otherwise, or where the term was set for your benefit as the debtor.
What the law says
Unless the parties so stipulate, or when the application of payment is made by the party for whose benefit the term has been constituted, application shall not be made as to debts which are not yet due.
Civil Code, Article 1252 — Application of Payments. Read the full provision →
The debtor's right to choose — and its limit
When you owe one creditor several debts of the same kind, the law lets you steer your payment. As the article opens, he who has various debts of the same kind in favour of one creditor may declare at the time of making the payment, to which of them the same must be applied. That choice is a real power — you might want to clear the debt carrying interest, or the one nearing prescription. But the power is not unlimited. The same provision draws a line at debts that have not yet matured, protecting the ordinary expectation that a debt is paid when it falls due, not before.
The rule on debts not yet due
The controlling words are these: unless the parties so stipulate, or when the application of payment is made by the party for whose benefit the term has been constituted, application shall not be made as to debts which are not yet due. So the default is that you cannot force a payment onto a debt whose due date has not arrived. A period on a debt is often set in the creditor's favour — for instance, to let interest keep running — and letting the debtor pay it off early by unilateral choice would deprive the creditor of that benefit. Hence the general bar, with two defined ways around it.
When you can reach the immature debt
There are two exits. First, if the parties have stipulated that payment may be applied to a not-yet-due debt, that agreement governs. Second, if the term was established for the benefit of the debtor — meaning you were the one entitled to the time — then you may waive that benefit and apply your payment to the debt early. The key is who the period was really meant to protect. Where the delay served the creditor, you cannot override it; where it served you, you are free to give it up. Reading the loan or credit terms usually reveals for whose benefit the period was set.
Once you accept the creditor's receipt
Timing and paperwork matter. Your right to designate the debt exists at the time of making the payment; leave it to the creditor and the choice may pass out of your hands. The article adds a caution: if the debtor accepts from the creditor a receipt in which an application of the payment is made, the debtor generally cannot later complain of it, unless there is a cause for invalidating the contract. So read the receipt before you accept it. If you meant a payment to wipe out one debt and the receipt credits another, raise it at once, and if a dispute develops, take the receipts and the loan documents to a lawyer.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Premiere Development Bank vs. Spouses Engracio T. Castañeda, G.R. No. 185110, August 19, 2024 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Atty. Leonardo Florent O. Bulatao vs. Zenaida C. Estonactoc, G.R. No. 235020, December 10, 2019 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Engr. Ricardo O. Vasquez vs. Phillippine National Bank and Notary Public, G.R. No. 228355, August 28, 2019 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Estanislao and Africa Sinamban vs China Banking Corporation, G.R. No. 193890, March 11, 2015 — read the decision on LawPhil →