Australians are fed up with their mates owing them money

AUSTRALIANS are fed up with footing the bill for their family and friends, with shocking research revealing a startling amount of us are out of pocket. Here’s how you can avoid shouting.

EXCLUSIVE: Australians are fed up with their stingy family and friends owing them money and it’s even forcing some to put a blanket ban on dishing out cash.

Being left to pick up the tab at the end of the night or paying for a friend who arrives empty-handed is leaving many people annoyed.

New research commissioned by BPAY Group found 38 per cent of people are owed money by family and friends.

But many are fed up with handing over their hard-earned cash — about 17 per cent refuse to lend any money.

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Bill splitting can be awkward for many people when catching up with friends, leaving many Aussies out of pocket.

The research surveyed 2000 Australians and found the biggest barrier for dishing out cash is 58 per cent of people don’t want to chase a person who owes them money.

BPAY Group’s chief executive officer John Banfield said “it’s always an awkward conversation to ask for your money back.”

“When you get burnt around lending money and never get paid back, that’s when you start to change your habits in being generous,” he said.

But not all of us are stingy — the research found about one in five people are willing to lend more than $200.

The rollout this year of the New Payments Platform in Australia allows customers to move money between each other in real time.

Previously customers could wait hours if not days to have money arrive in another bank account.

Aussies have said they are sick of footing the bill for mates who don’t pay them back.

Customers can also set up a PayID to make this even easier — this can be their phone number, email address or an ABN — linked directly to a bank account.

A customer only needs these details to move cash using their online banking, and when the detail is entered the name of the account holder pops up.

The NPP’s chief executive officer Adrian Lovney said nearly 2 million Australians have registered a PayID, speeding up the movement of cash and making it easier than ever.

“We know that Australians are frustrated about the amount of time it takes to move money between accounts at different banks,” he said.

“Australians can now transfer money instantly to each other through OSKO by BPAY, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year including public holidays.”

About $20 billion in payments has been transferred using OSKO — real-time payments — since its rollout in February.

@sophieelsworth

Originally published as Australians are fed up with their mates owing them money