What's the smallest amount you'd make someone pay you back?

[Teatimeted]

Interested to hear opinions on this as there have been several examples over the past few weeks, and normally to do with Uber but other things too...

Three of us split an Uber. Other two in a couple. I asked friend to let me know how much I owed her. Next day she messaged to say could I transfer £3.50

Friend called me an Uber from her house. Gave me £5 toward it (we'd had to change plans as her babysitter cancelled so I traveled across town to see her) then messaged to say it was £7.50

Met friend for dinner. She got there first and ordered and paid for bottle of wine. I tried to give her half (roughly £10) but she refused, so I said I'd pay next time

Which of those situations, if you were the other party, would you expect the money back? All? None? What's the minimum you'd expect a friend to pay back? Or would you ask/expect all outlay on your behalf to be repaid?

(For context, I'm not a freeloader! These are just recent examples. The first Uber was because they had the postcode of the restaurant and the second because my phone had died)

Kind of tricky as I will always offer to pay for my half of anything, and the faster payments on phones make it so easy, but with close friends and family members we operate on a ”what comes around goes around” system and assume that it all evens out in the end. With somebody I knew less well I think £10 would be my cut off point as far as paying for them went, and in poorer times it would have been £5 or even not being able to afford it at all!

I once saw one of my SIL's (quite well off) inlaws actually arguing because one of them had tried the other one's bread roll at dinner and she felt that 20p was owed her for the minuscule portion of bread her daughter had eaten. Charmers.

In those situations I would not have asked for any back. I think maybe anything over a tenner I’d ask. I’m not in the best financial place but would never offer them money or drinks etc if I couldn’t afford it. I’m very much a “don’t worry about it” person and do actually feel embarrassed when someone gives me back £1 or £2 as to me as to me that wasn’t a loan. I always ask how much I owe and offer to pay everything back though incase other people don’t feel the same way. When out with friends we all go by taking turns usually. If one is skint, the other get the coffees that time and vice versa. I’m lucky enough to never have encountered any CFs but I think life’s too short to be keeping a mental record of who owes you what to the penny

It depends on the friend tbh. Most of my friends if it's less than £10 I don't bother. However, I have 2 friends that I would. One who calculates things to the penny when it's her out of pocket, but rarely bothers to say a word when it's other people out of pockets. Another who is never the one to organise the taxi, buy the drinks etc. So it's a point of principle with them (if they weren't part of a wider group I wouldn't bother mixing with either as their attitude to other people stinks).

I prefer to pay what I owe, and be paid what I'm owed. I wouldn't ask for £1 or less, or if it's someone I regularly go for coffee with I'd alternate paying, but otherwise, because I'm on a very low income, I'm extra careful about not freeloading, but neither do I want to pay for other people.

A fiver, I'd say. But I'm not well off.

My friends and I don't pay back under 50.00. We just figure what goes around comes around and none of us take the mick. It's thinks like grabbing some fish and chips for the other's child...or paying taxis.

We repeat in turn.

The wine I would offer. The taxi rides I would probably offer some money before leaving the taxi (£5?). If refused, i would pay next time I was seeing her or buy the next coffee. I wouldn’tbexpect Someone to transfer such a small amount across.

Omg. I wouldn't go out with ppl who can't share properly. It sounds like hard work

I wouldn’t expect money back in those situations. However, Doesn’t it depend? You pay for people once, twice even small amounts and then if there’s no reciprocation, that’s on the way to becoming a piss take. Unless of course they are struggling financially and you accept to pay.

I share the cost of a bag of sugar with a colleague, We share the cost, I dont buy it, she Has to pay me back. otherwise, where is the sharing?

Anything over £2. I know it sounds tight but me and my friends are always budgeting and all feel the same so it works for us.

Depends what the other person's like at paying their share. I used to hang out with one friend over the course of a whole weekend, and she'd happily let me pay for everything so I would have to ask her for her share of the money. You could see it sticking to her fingers when she got it out, but it would be £40 or so, which I wasn't prepared to let go. However with other friends, I'd not even think about asking them for small amounts. I think if it's less than the cost of a drink, you let it go UNLESS the other person is a freeloader.

I tend to go by the rule or less than £5 it doesn't count between friends but that's only wiry friends that also have that rule. It totally depends on your relationship with the other person.

My very well off boss asks me for money when he buys me a croissant for breakfast! We buy them for each other quite often on the way into work so it should just even out. It's so petty, I have to transfer £1 to u each time because I never have cash on me

I wouldn’t ask for anything less than a tenner but I have friends who will ask for the exact amount down to the pence. I find it odd.

Depends on the person more than the amount.
For my friends I’d say anything over £10 I’d need back...a bottle of wine though if we go out regularly a close friend would prob get the one next time etc. So swings in roundabouts

I think thats fine whats happened. If you owe money for taxis then pay it. All these small amounts can really add up. Drinks are different. Usually you take turns to buy a round. So yes you get a bottle next time.

Anything under £10 with my close friends, as it is definitely 'swings and roundabouts' one of us gets the cab one time someone else pays for the coffees another. We all do put our hand in our pocket so it's never been an issue. I have a couple of newer friends since having my ds and the arrangement is much more split evenly at the time.

That's meant to be I wouldn't ask for anything back under £10 from my close friends.

I would 100% forget the money in any of those situations - life's too short.
However, thinking about it, I would ask for £20 and up to be re-paid, depending on the context, which seems pretty low.

@MyNameIsABCDE
I think that's wrong because you didn't ask for it?! He buys you one as a gift then says that's a pound please?! I would say no thanks. Especially when you bring in croissants with no charge! What a cheek!

Why do we do anything as parents? Whatever works for that family I guess. Ours had dummies, shock, horror. They’re 13 and 14 now. No dummies. It worked for us.

W

For drinks or coffee, I'd say you/I will get it next time, and leave it at that. But for most things we use Twint. Not sure if you have it in the UK, but its an app you download to your phone and link to your bank account. You can then use it to transfer money to anyone else with the app, nobody needs account details, you just put in the amount, choose send or request (and can add a note) and select person/people from the contacts list. Its very handy for e.g. splitting bill in a restaurant, one person can pay and rest twint them on the spot - or whoever gets to the cinema first can buy all the tickets and everyone else then twints them.

I don't pay unless I can afford to forget it.

PayPal and transfer by phone means it's easy to pay back. I find the more hard up friends tend to want to pay back exactly rather than owe while the more comfortably off people can afford to say 'my turn next time'.

If they then don't take their turn, I can't be bothered asking for their share and just quietly make sure I don't offer to pay in future.

Not that I’m often in the position thankfully, but I find it really difficult to ask for money back at all. Definitely couldn’t under €20 and even if it’s 50e I’m all “now I hate to ask” “sorry I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t need it”
Ugh