---
type: "Bill"
title: "Banking and finance; term \"interest\" does not include certain fees agreed upon by financial institution and depositor in written agreement between parties; clarify"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 1 of Chapter 4 of Title 7 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to interest and usury generally, so as to clarify that the term \"interest\" does not include certain fees agreed upon by a financial institution and a depositor in a written agreement between the parties; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2013_14"
identifier: "HB 824"
citation: "Georgia HB 824 (2013_14)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Calvin Smyre", "John Meadows", "Rich Golick", "Richard Smith", "Terry England", "Wendell Willard"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 16
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2014-01-23"
last_action: "2014-04-15"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ea63c14c-5a0c-4bab-8869-c2055020bc2e"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "ebb61de3d137be6520c3553a15beffface0476c06b01b0ed3044adf03c9461bc"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 824 (2013_14) — Banking and finance; term "interest" does not include certain fees agreed upon by financial institution and depositor in written agreement between parties; clarify

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 1 of Chapter 4 of Title 7 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to interest and usury generally, so as to clarify that the term "interest" does not include certain fees agreed upon by a financial institution and a depositor in a written agreement between the parties; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB 824/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/143200.pdf)
2. **LC 39 0540/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/137996.pdf)
3. **Sen ctee sub LC 39 0671S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/140969.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **162–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Calvin Smyre — primary (person)
- John Meadows — primary (person)
- Rich Golick — primary (person)
- Richard Smith — primary (person)
- Terry England — primary (person)
- Wendell Willard — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2014-01-23** House Hopper
- **2014-01-24** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2014-01-27** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2014-02-03** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2014-02-05** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2014-02-05** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2014-02-06** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2014-02-21** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2014-02-24** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2014-03-06** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2014-03-06** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2014-03-11** House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub
- **2014-03-24** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2014-04-15** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2014-04-15** Act 515 `executive-signature`
- **2014-04-15** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ea63c14c-5a0c-4bab-8869-c2055020bc2e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).