Interest Expense

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

Interest and Debt Expense [Abstract]

Interest Expense

Interest Expense

The following tables present the components of interest expense: 

	For the Three Months Ended September 30,				For the Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2021		2020		2021		2020
	(Dollars in thousands)
Interest incurred on debt	$	13,526	$	20,893	$	44,476	$	64,285
Accretion of original issue discount on 2018 Term Loans	815		549		2,658		1,647
Amortization of debt issuance and modification costs	1,707		1,032		7,075		3,094
Total interest expense	$	16,048	$	22,474	$	54,209	$	69,026

Interest Rates

The 2020 Senior Notes carry a fixed interest rate of 4.625%. The 2018 Credit Agreement had an effective interest rate of 3.50% as of September 30, 2021 and 4.50% as of December 31, 2020. See Note 4 "Debt and Liquidity" for details of these transactions.

During the three months ended September 30, 2021, we made prepayments for a total of $100.0 million under our 2018 Term Loan Facility. In connection with this, we recorded $0.5 million of accelerated accretion of the original issue discount and we recorded $0.9 million of accelerated amortization of the debt issuance costs.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2021, we made prepayments for a total of $300.0 million under our 2018 Term Loan Facility. In connection with this, we recorded $1.8 million of accelerated accretion of the original issue discount and $2.9 million of accelerated amortization of the debt issuance costs. We also recorded $1.6 million of modification costs related to the term loan repricing in the first quarter of 2021. See Note 4 "Debt and Liquidity" for details of these transactions.

The Company has several interest rate swap contracts to fix the cash flows associated with the risk in variability in the one-month USD. London Interbank Offered Rate ("USD LIBOR") for the 2018 Credit Agreement debt. See Note 9 "Derivative Instruments" for details of these transactions.