My friend owes me a grand but is trying to pay be back in fantasy DVDs

DEAR DEIDRE: CAN’T believe my friend’s cheek. He owes me a grand but is trying to pay me back in fantasy DVDs!

We’ve been mates for 20 years but now I think he’s taking me for a mug.

I’m 40 and he’s 38. We met when we worked together as engineers and hit it off because we were both huge fantasy fans.

Last year, he got made redundant. He split up with his partner and wasn’t able to pay his rent.

So I agreed to lend him £1,000. We’d set up a payment plan – £30 a month until it was paid off.

But now he says that because of the cost-of-living crisis, he’s too skint to pay!

When I protested, he replied that he didn’t have the cash.

Instead he offered to give me all his DVDs and games, which he says are worth at least £700, as collateral. I don’t want his DVDs.

Now we’re not speaking. As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished.

I don’t want to take legal measures.

What can I do?

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Fill out and submit our easy-to-use and confidential form and the Dear Deidre team will get back to you.

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DEIDRE SAYS: Mixing money with friendship rarely ends well, especially when it’s a large sum.

Your friend’s offer isn’t acceptable. However, if he doesn’t have the money, he can’t pay.

Even if you did go down a legal route (see gov.uk for court claims) it would be time consuming and is likely to make things worse.

Think about mediation instead to see if there’s another option.

Charity Civil Mediation can give you more information (civilmediation.org).

My support pack Standing Up For Yourself could help you talk to him.

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