Q: I granted my cousin a $25,000 loan, which required withdrawing money from my savings account. Can I charge him the 2% interest that I would have earned?

A: Loss of potential earnings is not reason to allow charging ribbis. Therefore, you may not charge your cousin the 2% unless you draft a heter iska (Igros Moshe Y.D. 3:93; Bris Yehuda 3, nt. 4).

If lending the money incurs an actual cost or expense, such as a wire transfer fee or legal fee to draft a loan document that expense can be charged to the borrower. A penalty for early withdrawal of CD depends on the nature of the penalty, so a posek should be consulted (The Laws of Ribbis, 4:1, 8-9).

Regardless, interest payments to a non-Jew for which the lender is responsible may not be “passed on” to the borrower. Therefore, if someone took a loan from the bank, he may not share it with his friend and have him pay the interest on the proportional amount [without a heter iska]. Similarly, one may not take a cash advance from his credit card on behalf of his friend and pass on the incurred interest (Y.D. 168:17).