FA+
Shop
Unpaid Debts
12 years ago
"I am the god of unpaid debts. Andrew prayed real hard this morning. Time for you fuckers to pay up."
One of the things that is almost a certainty in my life is being owed money and having an accounts receivable that never get paid off. How I handled this is whenever I lend money, I do not expect back and record the transaction as a charity or gift in my personal ledger. In a way, it is a test to determine how much that individual values the friendship and has the personal responsibility to pay off their debt to me.
Unfortunately that way of thinking has lead to me being stingy, disliking to lend any money at all, and overall being less charitable. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is something I wished to change. In recent years, I've reverted back to keeping track of debts, and behold I have calculated to date I have $713.44 I am owed. This is of course spread across several individuals who I do remind every so often that they owe me.
Now, I know they've been making purchases, such as games, or is saving up money for purchasing a big ticket item for themselves. This in particular is no problem with me as I do understand that every person has their own sets of priorities, and for some people paying debts isn't really high on them.
However, I do need to incentivize these people to pay off their debt to me, and the way I've considered is charging a 9% annual interest in the balance owed compounded monthly starting January 1, 2014. This gives them over a month and a half to pay me, and it will be something that I will tell each and every one of them I will start doing.
I know this will upset pretty much all of them, so I've decided to add another incentive that if will pay me before the end of this year, I will discount them 5% of the amount owed. While this may seem generous and that I will in fact overall lose money by offering said discount, how I perceive it is that this is money that I will never see getting back. Thus, I am trying to reduce my losses.
I'd like some feedback on what others think about this.
One of the things that is almost a certainty in my life is being owed money and having an accounts receivable that never get paid off. How I handled this is whenever I lend money, I do not expect back and record the transaction as a charity or gift in my personal ledger. In a way, it is a test to determine how much that individual values the friendship and has the personal responsibility to pay off their debt to me.
Unfortunately that way of thinking has lead to me being stingy, disliking to lend any money at all, and overall being less charitable. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is something I wished to change. In recent years, I've reverted back to keeping track of debts, and behold I have calculated to date I have $713.44 I am owed. This is of course spread across several individuals who I do remind every so often that they owe me.
Now, I know they've been making purchases, such as games, or is saving up money for purchasing a big ticket item for themselves. This in particular is no problem with me as I do understand that every person has their own sets of priorities, and for some people paying debts isn't really high on them.
However, I do need to incentivize these people to pay off their debt to me, and the way I've considered is charging a 9% annual interest in the balance owed compounded monthly starting January 1, 2014. This gives them over a month and a half to pay me, and it will be something that I will tell each and every one of them I will start doing.
I know this will upset pretty much all of them, so I've decided to add another incentive that if will pay me before the end of this year, I will discount them 5% of the amount owed. While this may seem generous and that I will in fact overall lose money by offering said discount, how I perceive it is that this is money that I will never see getting back. Thus, I am trying to reduce my losses.
I'd like some feedback on what others think about this.
As long as they are properly warned that this vig will be applied if they don't start acting like a responsible adult, then it sounds fine by me.
And I say this as someone whose day job often involves people who are lax on their fiscal responsibilities and whine like entitled bitches when told they need to keep their promises.
I have already received a little under $400, removing 2/3 of the individuals that owes me. So far, this idea has worked fairly well. Yet, I still need to inform one other individual who owes $136.63.
Many of them are fiscally responsible so long there is a lasting repercussion for when they are not, which coincides with what you said about having overdue liabilities impacting their credit score. So yeah, if I had more bite to my bark, I would have been paid sooner.
An ironic note is there are a few individuals who saw this post and asked me if they owed me any money. None of them did.
I appreciate your feedback, and give those entitled, whiny bitches hell.