Short answer. Yes, if you did not know about the period. Article 1195 lets anything paid before the arrival of the period be recovered, with the fruits and interests, where the obligor was unaware of the period or believed the debt was already due. Knowing prepayment cannot be undone.
What the law says
Anything paid or delivered before the arrival of the period, the obligor being unaware of the period or believing that the obligation has become due and demandable, may be recovered, with the fruits and interests.
Civil Code, Article 1195 — Premature Payment. Read the full provision →
What the law says
If something is received when there is no right to demand it, and it was unduly delivered through mistake, the obligation to return it arises.
Civil Code, Article 2154 — Solutio Indebiti. Read the full provision →
The mistake is the whole of it
Article 1195 provides that Anything paid or delivered before the arrival of the period, the obligor being unaware of the period or believing that the obligation has become due and demandable, may be recovered, with the fruits and interests. Recovery depends entirely on the mistake. A debtor who knew the money was not yet due and paid anyway has simply chosen to pay early, and cannot unwind it — he waived a benefit that was his to waive. The claim is for a payment made in the belief that it was owed now.
What comes back with it
Note the tail of the article: you recover the payment with the fruits and interests. The reason is that the period had value. Money handed over early was money the creditor had the use of and you did not, and the law restores that benefit along with the principal. It is the same idea Article 2154 expresses more broadly: If something is received when there is no right to demand it, and it was unduly delivered through mistake, the obligation to return it arises. The creditor was not entitled to hold the money yet, so the gain from holding it is not his.
It is recovery, not cancellation
Be clear about what you get back. The debt is not extinguished by the mistake; it returns to what it was, payable when the period arrives. So the practical effect is that the money comes back to you now and is owed again later — useful if you needed the funds, less useful if the loan was going to be paid anyway. Weigh that before writing. If the loan carried interest that would keep running on the restored balance, recovering an early payment can cost more than leaving it, and the arithmetic is worth doing first.
Proving you did not know
The mistake has to be shown, and the contract is the first place a lender will point. If the schedule of payments was in the document you signed, arguing ignorance of the period is difficult. It is easier where the due date was changed later, where a restructuring letter moved it, where a statement of account misstated it, or where the lender's own demand said the amount was due. Keep the statement or demand that prompted you to pay — a written request for money that was not yet owed is the strongest evidence of the belief Article 1195 requires.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1195 — Premature Payment
- Civil Code, Article 1196 — Period Presumed for Both Parties
- Civil Code, Article 2154 — Solutio Indebiti