Interest Broken or Me confused?

[Ambitious Minnow]

Finished a game, expected even though I spent a lot up front to be well ahead, then ended up well behind. Checked my stats, interest payments were higher than bank debt? Don't know where 20 in interest came from, it was just weird because that was my profit at the end of that match and instead it ended up also being my interest...(Roughly, so I don't know for sure.)
Earnings: 47,469
Spendings: -33,193
Interest: -21,630
Bank Debt -10,125
Spillage Fine: -5,152
Land Lease Payback: 166
All 3 bonuses: +3K

What happened?

[Ambitious Minnow]

Final Debt after game -19,163, so Bank debt wasn't the final debt either, it was the bank debt at start+what I withdrew during game.

[Gamious]

Did you borrow a lot of money? Because each time you add another $500 to your loan, the interest rate goes up 1%. So it becomes increasingly expensive.

And just to clarify, the interest paid on a loan in the village is a yearly fee. The interest paid in a level is a monthly fee. So if you borrowed a lot of money in the first months of a level, it can really add up to big red numbers.

[Ambitious Minnow]

i thought this was all getting added to the yearly fee
Interesting stuff. Thank you.

[Ambitious Minnow]

Hey Gam, I see your a dev. Just my feedback, economics seemed super wonky with this game. When I say super wonky, i mean very contrived instead of true to life or some internal reason(I could be totally wrong). For me though, it was the difference between testing and buying the game(I tested it on torn. first). Don't get me wrong, I found other features of the game enjoyable, but the economics were too silly and punitive to waste any more time with it. I only write you this comment to provide some feedback in case you guys have considered changing that, game would be a lot more playable for average people.
And it's not just a difficulty thing, check out the other games on my profile, some are retarded hard. It's just the economics of the game from front to start were bad. Good luck though!

[OttersR'Us]

The interest given is a monthly rate, though I recall seeing the debt increase throughout the month, so I'd assume it's compounded daily.

It should look like something to the effect of, assuming you borrow at the beginning of the year:

Borrowed	Total Interest
500	1157
1000	2735
1500	4813
2000	7486
2500	10862
3000	15069
3500	20254
4000	26588
4500	34273
5000	43538
5500	54653
6000	67929
6500	83724
7000	102457
7500	124605
8000	150726
8500	181459
9000	217542
9500	259826
10000	309290

Edit: Checked in-game, it's definitely compounded daily.

[OttersR'Us]

The exorbitant interest rates on larger loans is necessary for interesting gameplay. The less money you have at your disposal at the start, the more you have to try to juggle early expansion vs the inevitable crash of oil prices and the limited duration of the land lease.
When you can just borrow more money with no serious repercussions, time and fluctuating oil prices become much less important to manage. You don't have to agonize over selling low to facilitate expansion during a bad start (oil pocket or price-wise).

From a flavor perspective, this era presumably lacks any regulations on predatory lending, and the assignment of higher risk - and thus higher interest rates - to bigger debts is entirely reasonable.

[erikleppen]

borrow 500 - interest 11% per month = 55 p/m = 660 per year (factor 1.2)
borrow 1000 - interest 12% per month = 120 p/m = 1440 per year (factor 1.4)
borrow 5000 - interest 20% per month = 1000 p/m = 12000 per year (factor 2.4)
borrow 10000 - interest 30% per month = 3000 p/m = 36000 per year (factor 3.6)
borrow 20000 - interest 50% per month = 10000 p/m = 120000 per year (factor 6)

As you can see, small loans are no problem, but the larger they get, the more it will actually cost, even relatively.