Missed a loan payment in Kenya? What happens next

Missing a payment does not put you on CRB the next day. First come late fees and a frozen limit. Before any listing, the lender has to warn you, and there are things it is not allowed to do to collect. Here is the order things happen in, and what you can do at each step.

1. Late fees start

Your loan terms set the late charge, and they differ a lot. Three that are published:

• Timiza (Absa): a penalty of 10% of the outstanding principal on a late 30-day loan.
• Zenka: late interest of 1.5% a day on the outstanding principal, capped at the principal. Zenka can also, at its discretion, extend the loan for 7, 14 or 30 days if you pay extension interest, shown in the app before you agree.
• Hustler Fund: the rate rises from 8% to 9.5% a year if you repay after the 14-day term.

Most lenders also freeze or cut your limit while a loan is late. That is often the bigger cost, because it is the next loan you lose.

2. There is a ceiling on what a digital lender can recover

Once a loan from a licensed digital credit provider becomes non-performing, the most it can recover is the principal owed at that point, interest under your contract up to the size of that principal, and reasonable recovery costs (Digital Credit Providers Regulations 2022, regulation 19). If you owe KSh 5,000 in principal when the loan goes bad, interest cannot pile up past another KSh 5,000. A court order is the exception.

3. What a lender may not do to collect

Regulation 20 of the same rules bars a licensed digital lender, its staff and its agents from:

• threats, violence or anything meant to harm you, your reputation or your property;
• obscene or abusive messages to you or your contacts to shame you;
• using your phonebook or phone records to message people about your loan;
• posting your details online to shame you;
• unsolicited calls or messages to your contacts;
• any other conduct meant to harass, oppress or abuse you over the debt.

If it happens, complain to the lender in writing. It has to resolve complaints within 30 days (regulation 22). Keep screenshots. If your contacts were messaged, you can also report the misuse of your data to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.

4. You get a warning before any CRB listing

• Digital lenders: at least 30 days' written or electronic notice before they send negative information to a bureau, or a shorter period in your contract, which cannot be under seven days. Within 30 days of listing you, they must tell you they did (regulation 14).
• Banks and microfinance banks (M-Shwari, KCB M-PESA, Timiza, Branch): notice at least a month before the loan becomes non-performing, or two weeks before for loans repaid in less than a month, and notice within 30 days of the first listing (CRB Regulations 2020, regulation 63). For a commercial bank, a loan with a repayment plan is non-performing once it is 90 days unpaid; for a microfinance bank, once it is more than 30 days unpaid.
• Small loans: no negative listing where the amount does not exceed KSh 1,000.

The warning is the moment to act. Paying, or agreeing a plan in writing, before the listing date is far easier than clearing a listing later.

5. If you are listed

A listing for a defaulted loan stays for five years from the date you finally settle it (CRB Regulations 2020, regulation 34). Paying starts that clock; it does not delete the record that day. You can get your own report free at least once a year, and free within 30 days of being refused credit because of it. If something on it is wrong, dispute it with the bureau. See how to check your CRB status and how to get off CRB.

What to do this week

1. Ask the lender for a statement of what you owe. Licensed digital lenders must give you one on request.
2. Pay what you can and ask, in writing, for a plan or an extension for the rest.
3. Do not take a new loan from another app to pay this one unless it is clearly cheaper. Compare first on what each lender charges.
4. If collectors break the rules above, complain to the lender in writing and keep evidence.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Central Bank of Kenya (Digital Credit Providers) Regulations 2022, Legal Notice 46 of 2022
• Credit Reference Bureau Regulations 2020, Legal Notice 55 of 2020 (CBK)
• Lender terms: Absa Timiza tariff guide, Zenka terms for new loans, Hustler Fund. Read 25 October 2026.