In the current financial climate there are many people that may be struggling to get any sort of finance such as an overdraft, loan, credit card, and the like, and for many of these people the only option left available is to turn to a family member or friend to borrow money if the need arises.

However, the concern for friends and family members when it comes to lending money is whether they will ever see it again, as the pressure for a person to repay someone that they are close to is obviously nowhere near as great as if they borrow the money that they need from a lender.

Recent research has shown that one in three Brits would be prepared to lend money to a friend that was in financial need, but many are convinced that they will never see the money again. Around 32 percent of those responding to the survey said that they would give their friends a loan, with the typical loan amount being around £40. However, many of them said that they did not think that they would see their money returned to them.

Around 35 percent of respondents to the survey said that they knew that they would have to keep reminding their friends if they wanted the money to be repaid, and a further 25 percent said that they would be too embarrassed to ask their friends for the money back and would therefore end up writing the debt off.

The survey also showed that 70 percent of those that had lent money to friends had to wait at least two weeks before they got the money back, and 4 percent had ended up waiting for more than a year to be repaid. Another 18 percent said that they would not see their money again. Around 7 percent of respondents said that they had decided that they would never lend money to friends.