asking people to pay their debts (money they borrowed from you) to you?

ugh, this is one of my weaknesses. several months ago i let my former co-worker borrow some money since her son was hospitalized and had a severe condition. up until now she hasn't paid it yet and she's not even taking the step to contact me about it. what makes it worse is i lent her the money without interest. do you have some strategies when it comes to asking people to pay their debts to you?

I'm in a similar boat. I think the person who owes me money is waiting for me to make the first move and I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and do it. For me, the problem is that if I were the one owing I'd be making an effort to make re-payment arrangements. If I weren't, it would mean there was a big problem on my end. That's not likely to be the case here and I need to just stop projecting and do it. But I'll be watching for good suggestions, too!

When I was in university I was pretty strapped for cash, and my grandparents sent me £50.

A friend at the time was even more hard up than me, so I lent him the £50.

Next thing I knew, he'd flown off to Spain to live!

More recently I leant my youngest brother £1000 because he was in very serious financial trouble. He's paid back £500, but I think he's forgotten the other £500.

Before I leant it to him, my mum pushed for me to print out an agreement with payment terms on, for us both to sign.

Might be an idea for anyone in future - then in the instance of dispute, you have a signed document proving the lending agreement existed.

2c.

The rile i have for this type of subject is to say no!
Money brings the greed out in people and it's not worth loosing friendship over!
I learnt this from many years ago at lending money to friends and borrowing from them and it just goes around in circle each person owing the other cash!

thanks for your suggestion, bryan. i guess that way, your borrower will less likely forget about the money you lent him/her. my former co-worker has not yet contacted me but i plan to call her next week or send her a text message first.

destiny, thanks too for your suggestion. there are times that i force myself to say "no" when someone asks money from me if i badly need the money ,too, and especially if i know that the person is irresponsible.

The secret to getting back money you loan to family and friends is to not do it in the first place. I'm already teaching my kids that if they do then they need to think of it as a gift. If you do (by some miracle) get any of the money back, then it will just be a pleasant suprise.

Yes definatly Kelkat!
No problem Sweet I hope you resolve the issues pretty soon!

I try to sugar coat my words and ask, or I simply ask the person:-

"Mate, do I owe you some money?"

If you insist on loaning money to a friend or a relative then get it in writing - and in exact detail so that you both understand it. Don't do the "just pay me when you can thing," or you are likely to never see that money because they will say they haven't been able to pay.

Documentation is especially important in those cases where the sum involved in more than your monthly earnings.