If you are reading this, you have likely borrowed money from a friend or family member at some point. In fact, a recent
PayPal study found that 84% of Americans have repaid a friend or family member for something they owed. On average, Americans pay friends back almost 35 times a year, to the tune of almost $5,000 per year in total.
With so much money between friends, it’s no surprise that friendship and peer-to-peer (P2P) payments go together like BFFs. Almost half of Americans say that money has impacted their friendships, for better or for worse. In fact, the rise of P2P payments among family and friends has spawned a whole new behavior: almost 40% of Americans send their friends small sums of money when they aren’t expecting it. More than half of the time, these “penny pokes” are to say thank you or to cheer their friend up.
In honor of Friendship Day on August 6, we’ve added a series of unique greeting cards to our friends and family
digital gifting experience that celebrate the acts of friendships we most value – whether they can truly be paid back or not.
After all, it’s one thing to pay a friend back for food, household items, drinks and entertainment – the most popular costs shared among friends. But for the nearly 40% of people who owe friends for things that can never truly be repaid, what to do? To help, we asked Americans to place a “value” on some of the most popular, invaluable acts of friendship. Here’s what we found:
Overwhelmingly, Americans most value the friend who set them up with their husband or wife, with matchmaking valued at $4.4 million – enough to buy two Lamborghinis! Looking to pay homage to the friend who helped you move? That’ll be $4,284 – enough to send your friend to Hawaii for a week and have enough left over to buy yourself a new couch. The dreaded airport trip landed in the middle of the pack at $605 (but it’s fair to charge interest for flight delays). And Americans of all ages agreed that the friend who throws them a surprise birthday party earns just over $1,000 in friendship credit.
This August, let’s show our friends how much they mean to us by making good on the debt of friendship. All you have to do is login into your PayPal account, select “Send & Request” to
send a gift, pick your favorite card design, input a dollar amount, and send to the friends who matter most. The funds go right into their PayPal account; if they don’t have an account, they can quickly open one for free.
Happy Friendship Day!