Photo: Pakpanat / Shutterstock/ @peterpribylpierdinock / TikTok
Asking someone to pay back a minor favor that doesn't inconvenience the person may not always be necessary or polite.
By Megan Quinn — Written on Apr 23, 2023
It is always common courtesy to pay someone back after they do you a financial favor. Whether it be taking you out for dinner or picking up that new sweatshirt you wanted from the store, paying them back is always polite and demonstrates that you appreciate their efforts.
However, is it always necessary? Some people don’t believe so, especially when the favor is minor and does not inconvenience them in any way.
One man has most of the Internet siding with him after sharing the favor a friend of his expected him to pay her back.
The woman asked the man to Venmo her $2.47 for gas money after she gave him and his roommate a ride.
In a TikTok video that has been viewed nearly 4 million times, a man named Peter reveals screenshots of the text message exchange between himself and a woman named Julia.
“What’s your Venmo??” she asks him. “I need to charge you like $2.47 for driving you home last night.” She also asks for Peter’s roommate’s Venmo information since she also gave him a ride back to their place.
“Gas is pricey,” she explains. “Don’t blame me, blame Biden!!!”
Peter was clearly not impressed by what was being asked of him. “I know it’s unlikely but I am actively rooting for the Yellowstone super volcano,” he says. He calls out the woman for “getting way too bold.”
Other TikTok users agreed with Peter that asking someone less than $3 for gas money is inappropriate.
“People don’t type that out and get embarrassed before sending? It just blows my mind,” one user commented.
“My life could rely on that $2.47 and I’d still be too embarrassed to really ask someone for that amount back,” another user admitted.
“I would tell her I have no Venmo and to come to pick up the cash so she can waste more money driving to my house again,” another user suggested.
Others shared their own stories of people asking them for a ridiculously low amount of money to pay them back.
“Someone literally asked me for 30 cents because I asked them to get me a postcard,” one user wrote.
“Nothing surprises me anymore after a coworker sent me a Venmo request of 85 cents after she bought me a banana before work,” another user commented.
In the U.S., gas prices vary by state, with Texas having the lowest prices at around $3.086 per gallon and California having the highest at $4.91 per gallon. Even if Julia was in desperate need of some extra cash, it is very likely that Peter and his roommate did not contribute to the two extra gallons of gas she had to fill her car with. She may want to swallow her pride and eat the cost.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.