How to get a friend or family member to pay you back

Many people have loaned money to friends or family members. Chances are, they haven’t paid you according to your understanding. If you are lucky, you used a company such as One2One Lending to help you get your agreement in writing in the form of a promissory note. If you have a family member or friend who won’t pay you back whether or not you have created a promissory note, here are some ideas for how to get your payments back on track.

Create an understanding of where your loan stands now. Show exactly how much the borrower can afford to pay. This will let the (you) know that they are realistic and want to make the payments and when you should to expect them.

Talk to them about your interest in accepting payments. Sit down with the friend or family member and put an agreement in writing that they will pay you back in a set number of payments at specified times. This way, you’re adding structure to the agreement, and you’ll at least be getting something back. You also will not feel that it is wrong to nagging them about payment deadlines that have been agreed upon.

Be Persistent. If you’re starting to think that they will never have the money to repay you, and then get something else out of it. Think of it as security for the loan – something of equal value. This is a great way to let them off the hook for the money, but still receive some value for your efforts.

Give the money to them by forgiving the loan. If never getting the money back isn’t going to ruin your relationship, then just gift the money to them. You’ll feel good about it, the thoughts will be out of your head, and you can move on. If you’re not in a financial situation to give the money away without the expectation of getting it back, then you probably should not have loaned the money to them in the first place.

Loans between family members can ultimately sour a relationship and many families don’t talk to each other because of loans gone bad. Make sure that if you are ever moving ahead to help a friend or family member – get it is writing. With the help of on line services like One2One Lending it is not intimidating.