The art. 36a cap works like this. Maximum non-interest costs (commission, insurance, every mandatory fee) per year: 25% of principal plus 30% × (days used / 365). In practice: a one-year loan caps at 25% + 30% = 55%. A 6-month loan: 25% + 15% = 40%. A 30-day payday loan: 25% + 2.5% = 27.5%. On top of that a hard ceiling of 45% of principal in year one and 100% over the whole term (including any rollovers).
Interest itself (nominal) is capped separately by civil code art. 359: max 2 × NBP reference rate + 3.5 pp — around 14–15% a year in 2026. Interest plus non-interest costs give the effective legal ceiling for a loan. Anything above is usury; the contract still stands, but the excess is unenforceable — you do not owe it.
The 2022 amendment added an extra squeeze on micro-loans up to 30 days: the year-one non-interest cost cap drops to 20% (not 45%). The reason was a wave of 15-day payday loans rolled every month, where clients paid the full principal plus 100% in interest over a year. After 2022 that pattern shrank but did not vanish — firms moved to 61-day contracts (technically no longer „short-term") that dodge the tighter cap.
Frequently asked questions
Under art. 36a, after the 2022 amendment: 20% of principal in non-interest costs plus nominal interest (max about 14% a year). For a 1 000 PLN loan over 30 days: about 210 PLN total.
The excess is not owed. You can refuse to pay the excess, file a complaint, and on refusal — a small-claims suit or a UOKiK complaint.
Yes, if the lender is on the KNF register or operates in Poland under an EU passport. Non-EU lenders offering loans online to Poles operate in a grey zone — avoid them.