Short answer. Yes. Article 1413 of the Civil Code entitles you to recover any interest you paid above the ceiling set by usury law. You are also entitled to interest on that excess amount, running from the date you made each payment — so the remedy grows the longer recovery is delayed.
What the law says
Interest paid in excess of the interest allowed by the usury laws may be recovered by the debtor, with interest thereon from the date of the payment.
Civil Code, Article 1413 — Recovery of Usurious Interest. Read the full provision →
What Article 1413 gives you
Article 1413 is direct: "Interest paid in excess of the interest allowed by the usury laws may be recovered by the debtor, with interest thereon from the date of the payment." Two things follow from this. First, the excess interest itself is recoverable — you paid more than the law allows, and the law lets you get it back. Second, the amount you recover earns interest from the date of payment. Every peso of excess interest you paid is a debt the lender owes you, and that debt has been accruing since the day you paid it.
Why the law treats excess interest this way
Usury law sets a ceiling on interest rates to protect borrowers from exploitative lending. When a lender charges above that ceiling, the excess is not just unenforceable — it is recoverable as something that was wrongly taken. The rule in Article 1413 ensures that a borrower who was overcharged is made whole. Giving the debtor interest on the overpayment, from the date it was made, recognizes that the borrower lost the use of that money from the moment the lender collected it improperly.
What you need to show
To recover, you need to establish what rate was actually charged, what rate was legally permitted, and how much you paid. Documentation matters: loan contracts, payment receipts, bank records, and any written computation of interest from the lender are all useful. The excess is the difference between what you paid and what you would have paid at the legal ceiling rate. Gathering these records before approaching a lawyer will make the analysis faster and the claim more concrete.
A note on current usury ceilings
Philippine law on interest ceilings has evolved over time and depends on the type of transaction and the applicable regulation at the time of the loan. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has issued circulars affecting what rates apply to different categories of credit. Article 1413 applies when an excess over the legally allowed rate exists — but identifying what that legal rate actually was for your specific loan requires looking at what was in force when your contract was signed. This is worth clarifying with a lawyer before calculating the amount to claim.