Usury

"The rate of interest or the sum allowed for forbearance or use of money shall be 12 percent per annum computed by the actuarial method. For a loan or extension of credit secured by a subordinate lien against real estate, the interest rate shall not exceed 18 percent per annum. For a loan or extension of credit secured by a first lien against real estate, the interest rate may be the same as may be charged by any financial institution or seller of residential real estate under the provisions of the federal Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980, as amended. (9 V.S.A. § 41a)

9 V.S.A. § 42 lists permitted charges against a borrower for the use or forbearance of money.

When a note, bill, or other similar obligation is payable on demand or at a specified time, with interest annually, the annual interest that remains unpaid shall bear simple interest from the time it becomes due to the time of final settlement; but if in a year, reckoning from the time the annual interest began to accrue, payments are made, the amount of those payments at the end of that year, with interest thereon from the time of payment, shall be applied: first, to liquidate the simple interest accrued from the unpaid annual interest; second, to liquidate the annual interest due; and third, to extinguish the principal. (9 V.S.A. § 49)"