a friend has just asked me to loan him ￡150, he's travelling abroad but wants to come home and to change his flight costs this amount. I have known this person for about 6 months only but we are in daily contact and I consider fairly close. I know his home address etc so he cant do a runner. I can afford it but am hesitant.

would you?

That is a very situational question. Many factors would need to be considered in order to even remotely come to a decent answer.

Can you afford to not get the money back? If the answer is 'no', don't lend him the money.

I wouldn't. Then again I don't ever loan money to acquaintances or friends.

i can afford it yeah I just have no historical knowledge of how trustworthy he is with money but like I say, I know his address, can contact his parents if needed etc

To pay the doctor if he cut his finger off- maybe. To let him change his travel plans- never.

I generally wouldn't. If you feel this person is exceptionally trustworthy in general then you may want to look into it. Is this person unable to contact their family for this? On the other hand, if I knew someone only for six months it'd be pretty ballsy of me to ask someone for money unless I was used to doing it, and that's not exactly a good thing. But this person can also be desperate. See if you can loan them half if they find someone else who can loan them the rest if they're desperate.

yeah i think he's embarrassed to ask his family, from what i can gather, they all struggle, but "But this person can also be desperate. See if you can loan them half if they find someone else who can loan them the rest if they're desperate." is a good compromise methinks!

Yup.

Loaning money to friends (or family) should be considered giving money to friends (or family). If you get the money back, that's nice, but you shouldn't expect to get it back.

I hate loaning money to people. Friends are worse than others about paying it back.

Same thing with family... never.

One brother owes me $100 for a computer

The other $225

i loaned $1000 to a co worker once, so he could get his truck fixed, it has been nearly a year and have not seen a penny from him back. I had several thousand dollars at the time though so it didn't hurt me, but i do not loan large amounts of money to people now.

i would say that you should ask your self if you can afford to never get that money back, if the answer is no then do not loan the money because you do not want to screw your self over because a friend didn't pay back a loan. also it is a strain on a friendship, even small amounts.

if you can't get it notarized on paper before hand then dont loan the money, unless you dont care to get it back

oh man I hate this, i'm generous (but poor) and take care of those that I care about but any time a friend borrows it's always a problem. They either take way too long to pay me back, can't pay me back, a bit of both or some other BS which wouldn't happen if we weren't close and I could "collect".

If you've got the money to spare then it's a risk you can take, if not then politely refuse