What are Friends for? (Part 2)

What are Friends for? (Part 1)

When my friend Ann applied for the job that required her to sign a 3 year contract, she also had to find a surety. Should Ann be unable to pay the liquidated damages resulting from a breach of the contract, then the surety will have to take responsibility for the payment. Well, Ann approached a good friend of ours, Beatrice, who agreed to be her surety. When Ann was dismissed, she had to make the 1st payment of $15K and the rest of the damages was to be paid in installments. So here's where friends come in...

Nag you to pay up or else pay up for you

Unfortunately, Ann defaulted on the monthly payments. Beatrice eventually received notification informing her that she, as the surety, would have to pay the money that Ann defaulted. Beatrice got worried and questioned Ann about it. Ann made excuses like "Oh I didn't know the cheques bounced". And this didn't happen only once. So Beatrice lived in fear of having to pay the money that Ann was not responsible enough to pay up. I found out from Beatrice later that even before this, Ann had frequently borrowed money from Beatrice over the years and she had never returned the loans. Whatever it is, Ann and Beatrice more or less fell out and they are no longer on talking terms. And oh, it's definitely much more difficult trying to arrange group dinners these days due to the fall out.

Be mentally prepared there's no money back guarantee

I still sms Ann occasionally. She hasn't paid back the money I lent her. In fact, the last time I spoke to her, I felt rather disturbed because she claimed that she had paid me back partially by crediting the money into my bank account. Honestly I don't think so. I remembered that about 2 years ago, she claimed that she would use her year end bonus to pay me a few hundred bucks but the money was never credited. At that time, I thought she was already having a hard time financially so I didn't bug her. I still don't... I'm mentally prepared not to get the money back. I'm not angry with her. But I guess this is 1 of those things that happened that made me question how well I know people I thought I know...

* Note: all names have been changed to protect the identities of individuals involved in this scandal uh story