Research shows you lose £50 a year to flaky friends not paying you back

Now there’s an app to help

7 years ago | UPDATED 7 years ago

Circle makes sending and receiving money less awkward

Download it for an easy and painless way to pay people back

When it comes to paying people back we’re a lot less giving and Circle’s research has found there’s a significant gap between how much we think we lend to friends and how much we think we owe them.

On average we think we lend £76.80 a year but only owe £29.88, meaning that your delusional mates are putting you almost £50 out of pocket every year. Think of all the Tesco’s own wheat biscuits you could buy with that. You’d have breakfast for days.

Remember all those nights you’ve queued for three whole Drake songs and finally gotten to the bar, only to be hounded by your friends asking you to buy their drinks for them too.

It doesn’t seem like a big deal on the night with everyone promising they’ll “pay you back tomorrow” and “the next round’s on them,” but only 29 per cent of us always get our money back so you’re probably going to be living off those wheat biscuits till the end of term.

Even worse, out of the few people getting paid back nine per cent have to wait over a year to get the money, by which time the cost of Ben & Jerry’s will have tripled and it will all be worthless. Since a massive 37 per cent of us admit to not paying people back, although not to their face, you might as well give up.

If being poor isn’t bad enough, not getting your money back also leads to arguments with friends and family. One in eight people have argued with their mates over money and a worrying seven per cent have even lost a friend because of it. Think how many “accidentally” undercooked chicken fajitas have been whipped up for financially incompetent housemates.

Household bills are especially likely to cause problems as splitting them has led to arguments in one in eight house shares and one in ten housemates admit to not paying their share of bills.

The company who commissioned the research with YouGov, Circle, have built an app designed to make paying people back easy and prevent any more awkward and unnecessary bust-ups. It allows you to send money as easily as sending a text or Facebook message, saving you endless arguments with your mates.

Don’t lose a friend over money

Download Circle to get paid back in an instant

People using the app say it’s made it easier for friends to pay them back after a night out, when they’ve forgotten to bring their card to the library cafe, or they go to dinner as a big group.

Hannah Frost, French and Geography fourth year, is a massive fan of the app. She said: “We use Circle in my house, if someone buys something then we all just pay them back with it.

“Being able to use a WhatsApp style chat means the awkwardness around money is erased.”

The app is also great for holidays or travelling as you can send money in different currencies for no cost – and it’s a much safer way of transferring money because you don’t need to give out account numbers or sort codes. If you’re not good with words and want to avoid any awkwardness you can even use GIFs and emojis to make the request funnier.

Don’t lose out on £50 a year

Download Circle now

Ed Rushworth, an Economics fourth year, said: “Emojis, gifs and a built in text function makes asking for money way less formal, so you don’t have that low-key grinding worry that the person you are asking to pay you is gonna think you’re some kind of mean tight arse who never forgives and never forgets. A little gif of a pizza with £6 plz underneath never annoyed anyone.”

Circle have been travelling the country giving out free fivers and flying drones. Anyone who downloads the app will be given £5 straight into the app – it’s literally free money.