I have a basic policy of not borrowing or loaning money in Thailand!

But there have been a couple of occassions where I have loaned some money to falang friends that I have known for awhile and developed a feeling of mutual trust!But only in small amounts,less than 10,000 baht!

I have a good friend that was buying some property and had a delay with his bank in England for about a week!He called me up and asked to borrow 120,000 baht for the week to complete the property purchase!I believe that he would pay me back,but I told him that I was not comfortable going there with our relationship,especially since it was not a dire emergency and that he should work out a deal with the seller,which he did!

Another friend that I trust,wife called my wife and asked to borrow 10,000 baht,but that she shouldn't tell me because I would tell her husband.My wife told her she could not do that because she never lies or deceives me!

I would loan her husband and her 10,000 baht because of his and my relationship,but I won't loan it to her w/o him knowing and I won't tell him about his wife asking!

Anyone else find this topic difficult at times in your lives as expats?

BKKSTAN wrote:I have a basic policy of not borrowing or loaning money in Thailand!

But there have been a couple of occassions where I have loaned some money to falang friends that I have known for awhile and developed a feeling of mutual trust!But only in small amounts,less than 10,000 baht!

I have a good friend that was buying some property and had a delay with his bank in England for about a week!He called me up and asked to borrow 120,000 baht for the week to complete the property purchase!I believe that he would pay me back,but I told him that I was not comfortable going there with our relationship,especially since it was not a dire emergency and that he should work out a deal with the seller,which he did!

Another friend that I trust,wife called my wife and asked to borrow 10,000 baht,but that she shouldn't tell me because I would tell her husband.My wife told her she could not do that because she never lies or deceives me!

I would loan her husband and her 10,000 baht because of his and my relationship,but I won't loan it to her w/o him knowing and I won't tell him about his wife asking!

Anyone else find this topic difficult at times in your lives as expats?

stan
i would not even lend anyone money where i live and certainly not in thailand.
have been burned to many times

Difficult situation for sure Stan. However, I agree with your "basic policy".
Yes, I have loaned money, on certain occasions. You're out for the night with a friend and they want to borrow a small amount because they didn't bring enough with them or their ATM got got eaten on a weekend or nightime, etc. Here we're talking less than a few thousand for the forgetful one and no more than 10K for the ATM problem.
But, I should say, I have less than 10 people that I would feel comfortable "loaning" money to, unsecured.

The rest of you, better have collateral.

Nope no problem, simple, no loans period, however for my farang friends of which I have a few, those I have known for more than 4 years, mutual trust is the key, normally any difficulties can be sorted, so no problem.
never loan to Thais period, did once took me 2 years to get money back than had to write off some.

Interesting subject Stan. Personally, I've been on both sides of this equation and most recently on the receiving end when I bought my current pick-up. Borrowed from a close friend about 15 months ago when I knew my income tax rebate was coming in. He was good enough to loan me the money until it arrived and, unfortunately, I had some problems with my tax statement so things got delayed. Most embarrassing for me, but things finally worked out. I returned his loan on the day before he had to leave to go back to the States. I hate it when I can't deliver on time but he was most accommodating and said he wasn't worried because he knew me. It's nice to have friends.

I have a basic policy of not borrowing or loaning money

with few exceptions. i thailand, i don't think i know anyone that well of for that long to even consider a loan over 10K baht. the only person, a farang i lent money to here, burned me, less than 7000 baht. person i knew the longest and thought the best, at the time.

in the past i have loaned sum of money to trusted friends and never had a problem. though learned long time ago, not to borrow or loan policy.

largest loan, most trusted person i've known for over 45 years, was 30k usd, still paying, w/interest, i basically mortaged his house, 10 yr/7 %, as he could not get financing. not a problem. only know 2 people i would trust to that extent.

someone short changed, even myself, couple thousand baht for the day or two, not a problem, as long as not too drunk to forget.

an excellent policy, no borrow, no lend, here. as you will be approached for ridiculous amounts, with paperwork to use as security, which is basically useless, unless signed over and worth more than the loan. and then, signed over to who, since you can't own, again, useless if something happens.

i've know people here for over 7 years, at best meeting once a week, for few hours. added up, that's not long.

I loaned 30,000 Baht to a Thai girl who is a good friend and needed to buy a motor cycle. We agreed that she would repay me 1500 Baht per month. She gave me her gold that was valued at approx 15,000 Baht but after a few months of regular re-payments I gave it back to her.

There were one or two months where her circumstances were such that she had to miss a payment but she always contacted me to talk about it.

I am pleased to say the final payment went into my bank account last month. A very trustworthy Thai lady.

There are one or two people I would be prepared to loan money to in Udon but my circumstances now do not allow me to.

John

There are a couple of very long term friends to whom I would loan whatever I could, no questions asked. Others, maybe a small loan upon occasion, but that's all. I have lost small sums in the past.

To paraphrase somebody, "If you load somebody 1,000 Baht and never see him again, it's worth it!"

I make it a practice not to borrow money but when I was in the hospital after my M/B accident
my wife borrowed 50K 30K from her sister & 20K from my landlord they all got paid back when I got out of the hospital / the bank would not accept her signature on my American ATM card
and my Bank in AZ will not put her on my account because she does not have a social security number / any suggestions would be appreciated / now as for loaning money yes I have loaned money in Thailand to both Thais & farlong / the Thais paid me back / as for the falong I just lent him the money recently so it to soon to say /

I had a Thai friend living in BKK.She was looking for a farang (Now thats unusual!)
really nice person! She called me to say a farang living at chiang mai was going to visit her.
She was so excited.Later she contacted me saying.The farang had called her saying he had lost his wallet with his credit cards.Could he borrow 5000 baht?
She actually deposited 5000 baht into his account!
When he arrived at BKK,He told her to come to his hotel.But she was scared to go see him and said she would meet him outside.He said no."If you dont come to my room I not give you money back!That was probably her months wages
Anyway, He never answered her phone again

loan really means give and never see again .
people get shot for not paying back 5000 bahts so keep out of the lending business .
except if they have some kinda collateral which is unlikely .
lend 1 and they will be queuing up at your door

lend 1 and they will be queuing up at your door

say no, the first couple times, and the word gets around the village you are no good and a cheap charlie. and that is definitely a GOOD thing. build a 2-3 meter wall around house, and you never have to see a salesperson again.

I have loaned money to family members of my TW. No problem, brother-n-law paid back (20k baht). I have come to trust my family here for good reasons, they trust me for larger amounts of loans given me, over 300k baht.

Pop's

There can of course be exceptions, but as my old Dad used to always remind me....Neither a borrower nor a lender be!

We loaned money to the family initially too,they eventually became gifts,trust breakers,initiators of money requests for all kinds of schemes and finally a relative inexpensive lesson about family financing!

Of course,we don't have much contact with the family these days,no visiting and just a rare attempt to test the loan market is made these days !

There is some ''other'' dirty laundry in the family visit relationship which is a big impediment to visiting,but add the interest''in only getting something from us'' to it and you would understand why we live in NK versus BK or Buriram!