Real Life MMD: Should I pay the extra money?

boo1

It's a no brainer, you have to pay, nothing else would be acceptable in my book.

Cimscate

You should pay back what you borrowed - this is a friend after all!

wisemark

No, your friend agreed to accept the food at that restaurant instead of the money. So what's the problem? He got his food. It doesn't matter how you paid for it. If you had promised a particular restaurant and then taken him to a cheaper one, I could understand him, but he got what he wanted. You could have paid in full and used your discount voucher at a later date, so what's the difference? He is just being greedy trying to benefit from your voucher. He would have been perfectly happy if you hadn't told him about the voucher.

Surfer

What a cheapskate! The friend had the decency to lend them the money and then they want that bit knocked off the meal etc. They should have taken the friend for a meal in gratitude and then paid back the full amount that was loaned. I would not want to have a friend like the OP!

jenni2000

This is a really easy one to answer.
If you owe your friend money you should have firstly paid them back in full. The offer to pay for the meal is terrible as you will be already be paying half for them and half for yourself - not at all what your friend intended I suspect. So even without the voucher you were only ever paying back half of the debt. Since you have used the 50% voucher you will be paying even less of the debt off.
If your friendship is worth anything you would pay the remaining amount and don't borrow money from them again. Money issues can really spoil a friendship

koiuy5

Why did you confuse the situation by offering to pay for your friends dinner? Pay them the money you owe them. Then go out for dinner and use the 50% off voucher and split the bill - just as you would if you didnt owe them money. Fair for everyone.

johnfwoods

You should give him the remainder of the money you borrowed. Do you not know what a "friend" is?

Mouseboy007

I usually read these forums passively, but was so shocked/incensed, I signed up to the forums specifically to post a reply!!

Had your friend suggested that buying dinner will make your loan quits, then it may not have been so bad, but since you're suggesting it AND in doing so are trying to find ways to save paying the full amount owed, it paints you in a VERY bad light.

For starters, your suggesting of paying for dinner instead of giving the money will likely have put your friend on the spot, and dare I say, they are probably a better friend than you for not only loaning you the money but accepting to settle the loan in this manner. I've had friends suggest similar things and begrudgingly accepted to spare a friendship.

Secondly, I agree with a previous poster who says that it seems that by raising the discount voucher you're rubbing their nose in it. Again, it may not have been so bad if you'd have said you will cover the drinks or some other token gesture to ensure that the amount borrowed is fully repaid.

I have a friend that I loaned some money to recently and agreed they could pay it back piecemeal over the next few weeks. Although I had the money to help them, it wasn't 'spare' and has left me short. However, my friend has not only been paying back the money owed, but tried to give me a 'fiver for petrol' the other day because she doesn't have a car and I've ferried her around a few places recently. I didn't really want to take the money, but could see she was insistent, so instead I accepted the money, but insisted I bought her lunch the next time we were out together (which I did). I have friends that have loaned me money (£20 here and there etc) and despite my best efforts to repay them, they have refused or said 'call it a tenner' because I've bought them a few beers down the pub the previous night etc. All in all, the people I'm friends with see money lending as give and take, and I don't know whether, over the years, I'm up on money or down on it because quite often alternative arrangements have been made (like paying for dinner etc), however it would always be something that the person loaning the money has suggested, and that's the key point - it seems like you want to have your cake and eat it, pardon the expression.

Irrespective of the amount, ultimately you appear to be trying to circumvent paying what is owed and wrapping it up in a convenient way-out.
I hope your friend is more forgiving of your approach than I would be.

post_it_note

Did you expect half of the restaurant bill to come in at under or over what you borrowed? If you expected it to be under anyway your a skinflint and your friend knows.

Just give them the money back and split the bill using the 50% off voucher.

stevenhp1987

Why should you pay?

If the meal was more than what you owed, I doubt they'd expect to pay the difference would they? You found a 50% off voucher, might as well use it. You agreed to pay them back with the meal. They can't go back on the deal, that's not fair. It seems like they expected to profit (as a meal generally costs more than money owed?) and now see that they aren't so are getting annoyed at you profiting instead.