Real life MMD: Should I charge my bro?

[MSE Debs]

Money Moral Dilemma: Should I charge my bro for his PPI claim?

This question was tweeted to Martin, so we thought we'd put it out there for collective wisdom. "My brother's asked me to do his PPI claim for him. I was thinking of asking for 10% of the money he'll get back. Do you think I should charge more? Is it worthwhile for me?" It's worth remembering you can do it yourself for free via the PPI reclaiming guide — yet go through a company and they'll take 25%+ of your winnings.

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[svmitche]

Erm, sorry if this sounds offensive but THIS IS YOUR BROTHER! Sit down with him and take him through the process. I can't actually believe you're thinking of charging him 10% or more!

Why not say you'll go round for dinner - he's buying - and you'll help him? Planning on what percentage you'd going to rip him off for is bang out of order...

[tryingtoruletheworld]

Charging him, seriously?!

I have helped family members with many things, including financial issues, and they have helped me with a great many things too - isn't that what families do?

[VoucherMan]

Your brother!

Who pays the postage when you send him a birthday card?

Or does he buy his own and get you to sign it? (for a fee of course )

[alwayswrite]

How mean can you get wanting to charge your brother to claim his PPI for him.......I volunteered to do the probate for my inlaws because a will wasn't left which would have made things so much easier.....it took five months to do this because I have never done a probate before so I had to research how to do it nevertheless I wouldn't have ever charged them for my services and they were only my IN-LAWS.....let us hope you need his help soon and see what his reaction is............

[birkee]

Without even reading the responses yet:-

If it's 'give and take' with your Brother, certainly not.
If your Brother is a 'user', most certainly yes.

My relatives were very happy to call upon my skills, as a favour to them. What they failed to realise was, there were so many, that they were taking time off me for doing things for my own home and family. I had to start becoming 'unavailable'.

About a week ago, I was taxed with working on family members computers. I was working on my Grandson's computer when my Cousin phoned, having fallen for the scam of "I'm from Microsoft, and you've got a virus on your computer".
Quickly, I told him to change all his passwords and any recorded bank account details on his computer, but then had to shut him off as my Wife was just serving our evening meal.
After eating, he rang again, and I had to put him off, as I was working on my Grandsons computer, and he needed to get on with his course work. My Cousin seemed quite put out that I said I couldn't help at that time.
That would have been six computers worked on, in one week, and knowing my Cousin, would have meant a 40 mile trip each way, to deal with his.

So, as I say, if your Brother is a 'user', charge him!
The question is also, is he too idle or stupid to do the job himself?

(Somehow.... I always seem to end up 'out of pocket' helping family as well. Travelling etc.)

[birkee]

P.S.As a pensioner now, being left 'out of pocket' is not on.

[Columbo]

I fail to see how this is a dilemma.

You are simply looking to make a quick buck out of money your brother has been fraudulently relieved of.

Thankfully you're not my sibling!

[ayayay]

I'm a solicitor and get this all the time with friends: "can you assist with a little legal matter?". I don't mind the odd word of advice but sometimes I'm asked to draft letters and all sorts. The thing is no-one would dream of asking a builder, plumber, electrician to come round the house and work for free for half a day.

Having said that, a brother might be a bit different. I think though if I was the brother I would offer 10% from my windfall as a thankyou.

[bennett2kuk]

You don't know how close they are and you don't know how much work will be involved.
If the brother is just being lazy and I was busy I'd expect something, maybe not a percentage but I'd want a thank you in the form of something.
I have 2 sisters, 1 I never see and 1 I don't see very often. If either of them asked me to do something I'd expect something in return.
My family aslways want and never reciprocate, after years and years of this it begins to grate and if the opportunity arose to finally get something back from them I'd take it.

[silkcutblue]

"My brother's asked me to do his PPI claim for him. I was thinking of asking for 10% of the money he'll get back. Do you think I should charge more? Is it worthwhile for me?"

A: You know your relationship with your brother best. You will need to decide if it's appropriate to charge him and at what level.

[Marco12452]

Why would you charge a family member !!!
It has no cost to you but your free time, which you should give to family freely.

[cazpost]

I really do wonder about some of the people who ask these 'dilemma' questons.
He's your brother,you just help him.Thats what families do! If he is a nice bloke he will buy you dinner or give you some of the money. If he is not a nice bloke why are you helping him at all?
I am interested to know why he needs your help,Martin tells us its easy to do it yourself.If it's because he has some genuine difficulty with forms,dyslexia etc,fair enough.If he's just a lazy git who can't be bothered to do it himself,again,why are you helping him?

[birkee]

Originally Posted by Columbo

I fail to see how this is a dilemma.

You are simply looking to make a quick buck out of money your brother has been fraudulently relieved of.

Thankfully you're not my sibling!

Perhaps he should handle ALL of his Brothers financial affairs, as he appears to stupid not to pay for things he didn't need?
Methinks the term 'fraudulently' is misplaced. They must have explained what the extra charges were for, and he must have agreed to them.
Using the term fraudulent doesn't automatically make them wrong. It makes the Brother stupid.
They could do the same thing by doubling interest rates, and if Bro is stupid, or desperate enough to sign up for it, that's HIS problem.

[flakmagnet]

Originally Posted by cazpost

He's your brother,you just help him.Thats what families do!

Focusing on only this part of the statement, this is what a lot of people believe, and for many, yes, this is the case, and until a year ago I'd have said the same myself, but just because this is the idyllic situation, this is NOT always the case. He could just be trying to get his brother to do it because he can't be bothered, always a case by case basis in my book. Unfortunately, since we don't know the people involved, we have to specualte.

In my opinion, it depends on why you have to do it for him.

If he simply cannot be bothered, then I'd say yes, charge him, your time is worth something too, why should you spend your time helping him if he can't be bothered to help himself?

However, on the flip side:

If it's because he can't wrap his head around the process, why not just give him advice on how to do it, talk him through it and let him do the bulk of the work himself.

[deadrobot]

Originally Posted by birkee

Perhaps he should handle ALL of his Brothers financial affairs, as he appears to stupid not to pay for things he didn't need?
Methinks the term 'fraudulently' is misplaced. They must have explained what the extra charges were for, and he must have agreed to them.
Using the term fraudulent doesn't automatically make them wrong. It makes the Brother stupid.
They could do the same thing by doubling interest rates, and if Bro is stupid, or desperate enough to sign up for it, that's HIS problem.

Wrong! http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/20...e-first-place/

[JayD]

I am gobsmacked that you would even consider charging your own brother - and to the point where you are actually asking for advice on it!

Jeez! If you don't want to help him, point him to the 'free' reclaiming giude you have referred to and tell him you are sorry but you are too busy or don't want to take on the responsibility. But to charge him???

NO WAY!

[AshleyJane]

Originally Posted by birkee

Perhaps he should handle ALL of his Brothers financial affairs, as he appears to stupid not to pay for things he didn't need?
Methinks the term 'fraudulently' is misplaced. They must have explained what the extra charges were for, and he must have agreed to them.
Using the term fraudulent doesn't automatically make them wrong. It makes the Brother stupid.
They could do the same thing by doubling interest rates, and if Bro is stupid, or desperate enough to sign up for it, that's HIS problem.

Your opinion is so misplaced like the person stated above; you are wrong check out martins blog. We dont need people like you on this site spurning off ill informed information. Before you make such sweeping statements about people why dont you read a bit more and actually understand what it is you are talking about...

PPI isnt just a small silly mistake made by some stupid people... it has been a major investigation and has resulted in legal action whereby people who were fraudulently missold something and stolen from where able to claim it back...

Your ignorance is sickening

[N.I.M]

Like others have already said its case dependant. Is your brother a scrounger always looking for someone else to do stuff cause he couldnt be bothered? If so charge him. If he isnt capable of doing it himself then help him out either by doing it or by showing him how to do it and getting him to do as much as he is capable of doing. And take a quick look in the mirror...are you the scrounger?

Do we know what the poster does for a living? If he works in the industry this might be why he asked the question.

[aliasojo]

Originally Posted by MSE Debs

This question was tweeted to Martin, so we thought we'd put it out there for collective wisdom. "My brother's asked me to do his PPI claim for him. I was thinking of asking for 10% of the money he'll get back. Do you think I should charge more? Is it worthwhile for me?"

I think this is the unfortunate risk of money saving. The other side of the coin as it were.

There are people who take things too far and the 'screw the companies back' and 'look out for your own finances' type of messages can be taken to the extreme by some.

Their focus becomes fixated on wealth/worth/material issues etc and they tend to forget other aspects of life.