Retiring old personal loan.

OldFriend

A long time ago, 25-30 years ago, a girl friend loaned me $300 to cover part of travel expenses to visit her. I visited her for about two weeks, then went home. Before I could start to pay her back, she died unexpectedly. I was broke, girl friend's family did not need money and did not know about loan. I was deeply depressed. :(:( Did not pay back loan. :embarasse Am not getting any younger, this is one of debts that I need to repay before I die. I can now pay back loan to her heirs, but I feel that I should pay more, perhaps considerably more than the original value loaned. :undecided:undecided:undecided

What would be fair repayment of loan? Please explain logic behind amount. Loan made in early August of 1984.

Thank you

dealer_wins

I would guess a figure of $1000-$1500 would be near enough what a lender would have charged you over 28 years.

bargainbetty

It has been a long time past, and her family might be a bit surprised if you rocked up now with a cheque.

If you really want to hand over the cash, think about your friend and what was important to her in life. Find a charity that represents something she would have believed in (or relates to the condition/incident that took her) and donate it to them in her name.

The number is up to you - would she have charged you interest had she lived?

somethingcorporate

Evidently they have not been missing it. Perhaps make a decent donation to charity instead?

OldFriend

This is really a weird situation, so I guess I had better fill in some of the blanks. I met her (Let's call her "E") through her older brother. He was in Graduate School with me and, while we weren't best buds, we knew each other pretty well. :beer:He ended up marrying girl I was seeing before I met E. I had a pretty good relationship with her mother and got along OK with most of her sisters, although cannot say I had a close relationship with any of them. Have not had much contact with any of them in past ten, fifteen years, family relocated to Colorado while I stayed in Tennessee (about two-thirds of continent away).

Still, I had some sort of relationship with most of her close relatives. I feel that I owe them an explanation and apology, not just money. Unfortunatly, showing up out of nowhere to pay off a VERY old debt is just the sort of thing that you might expect from me.

Charity is nice idea, but this was a personal loan, want to give money to a person that E cared about. Am intending to give it to one of her nieces, her godchild.

As far as interest and penalties go, I can hear her now: "Don't be a twit".

But this is not really about E anymore. This is about me, nearing the end of my life, wanting to settle accounts. I am something of a romantic, given to grand gestures. It is entirely believable that I would massivly overpay loan.

E really would call me a twit then, maybe throw someting in my general direction (aiming to miss), angry at me for trashing cash reserves, maybe hurting my retirement plans to give money to a woman who was barely walking when E died. :undecided

But this is not really about E or even about money anymore. This is about me, nearing end of life, wanting to settle my accounts, pay off debts of honor.

Government, businesses can just sue my estate if I die before paying them back. That is business, this is personal. Wife dead, as is only child, sister has no children and does not need money.

Have asked my accountant several times what a valid repayment would be, she keeps ducking question.:cool:

So, I am posting the question here, trying to get the opinion of strangers, of people who will neither gain or loose by giving me thier honest opinion.:A

geoffky

Find out who has struggled in her family and give it to them...peace of mind is priceless..
Give what you can comfortably afford..

GazHatesBanks

If you want to pay back without interest but taking into account inflation you can enter the figures here to give you the value of the $300 in today's terms (between $600 - $700 for 25-30 years).

bargainbetty

OldFriend wrote: »

But this is not really about E or even about money anymore. This is about me, nearing end of life, wanting to settle my accounts, pay off debts of honor.

Then give want you want to who you want. Whatever you do will be more than was ever expected, and the knowledge that you respected E enough to remember this for so long might mean a great deal to her family.

McClane54

This guys on a wind up