MSN has an article How To Hassle The Pal Who Owes You
According to the money-etiquette survey conducted by Ipsos market research and commissioned by PayPal, 63% of respondents have seen someone skip out on paying back a friend, and 57% have seen a friendship or relationship end because of it.
You won’t have to hassle your friends to get your money back if you lend it sparingly. I’ve had a good track record when I’ve loaned money to friends but I haven’t had a perfect record. I’ve been burned a few times so I developed a few rules for lending to friends.
Guidelines for lending money to friends:
- Write it down so you don’t forget.
- Let them know when you want to be paid back.
- Don’t lend it to them unless you can trust them with your ATM PIN number.
- Remind them at least once a week.
- Don’t ask why they don’t have your money. Reminders should suffice if #3 is true.
I learned a couple things from borrowing from friends too:
- Don’t borrow from friends unless you’re dying or in jail.
- If you have to borrow, pay them back that same day.
If you can’t get your money out of your buddy, you need to take it mob style. “Yeah you got money to pay for fake mustaches eh?”