How To Remind Someone Who Promised You A Gift Or A Favor

Though there are chances that people intentionally forget their promise to you, they usually forget because they are buried in works. So, how could you politely remind them of a gift or a favor they’ve promised?

You can find the desired solution to the problem of “how to remind someone who promised you a gift or a favor” in this article. The answers to related concerns are also included. Hope this is helpful to you!

How To Remind Someone Who Promised You A Gift Or A Favor In A Polite Way

Here are things you should do to politely remind someone of a favor or a gift they have promised.

• First, choosing a suitable time to bring it up is critical. 

You should wait for an appropriate amount of time, maybe at least a week, to avoid being an annoying person.

• Then, you can send them a short follow-up note asking if you can answer any questions or add some useful information.

For example, they have promised to introduce you to a recruiter; and your brief follow-up note can be:

“Hi [name of people who promised you a favor], I do appreciate your offer to introduce me to [name of the recruiter], and I am looking forward to connecting. Besides, should I send on additional information to demonstrate my situation, such as why I am considering changing careers?”

By doing this, you indirectly remind them of their offer while showing your sympathy and helpfulness. Also, this brief note will push them to check and give you a response.

• In the case you need a quicker and sooner response, you can mention what you need in the first line of your follow-up message/email.

For example, you want to have ideas about booking a reference room for the next meeting, so, you can mention it in the first line of your email after the greetings.

• It would be helpful for you to wait for 48-72 hours before reminding them again.

You can forward your email with a message like this: “Sorry for following up so quickly, but I have to hand over the brief of possible options by EOD tomorrow. I would be grateful if you could send me any ideas about this today.”

Including your deadline will show that you are not trying to put pressure on them or are rushed and impatient.

How Do You Politely Remind Someone To Pay You?

Things to consider

It is a complicated situation when reminding someone to pay you. To politely remind a person about this situation, you should consider these bullet points:

• Be clear with the terms from the beginning

They will be less likely to forget the deal if they agree to the initial terms. Without discussing this in advance, they may have a greater chance of making an excuse or changing the terms.

Some of the terms you should discuss include the time they should pay back, the interest rate, the currency, and the payment method.

• The right time for asking them to pay you.

The suitable time for this is when everything is okay with them. It means this is a time they do not have any bad issues or pressures like recently lost jobs, being scammed and lost money, etc. 

In such bad times, they suddenly do not have enough money to pay you. Though you want to get back your money, it is not a good idea to make them feel bad when being in such terrible situations.

That’s why you should make sure you know their situation before asking for your money back.

• Be direct and polite when reminding

If it is not too important, it is not necessary to bring up the past. You should simply mention the money they owed in a friendly and polite way.

To make your reminder sound more polite, you can set the tone for it. Try to deliver warm and empathetic messages. Do not be over-dramatic about this.

You should also ensure that you include the necessary information like the amount of money and payment methods (which can be flexible). 

For the time to bring it up, you can mention this in the middle of a conversation, like: “By the way, I’m planning to join a new course, would you have the money that I lent you last month?”, to make it sound more natural.

• Give them a reasonable time to pay their owed money

They may need time to get the money to pay you, and you can offer and discuss this with them so that they will not likely make empty promises.

It would be good to be patient and put your truth in people, so this could take a little longer.

Some ways to politely remind someone to pay you

Here are some ways you can use to ask someone for the money they owed.

• Using an overt request in your reminder

You can tell them that you need money for something and ask them to pay you.

For example, “Hi [name], sorry for asking this out of a sudden but do you have the money I lent you last month because I am short of money for my car preparing.”

• Evoke their sympathy and guilty

You can imply that you want to get your money back by mentioning that you’re in emergency situations, such as it’s time to pay your bill, or you’re late with your rent, or you’re short on cash for groceries, etc.

For instance, “Hi [name], I really need to settle my bills but I’m short of cash right now.”

•  Offering helpful approaches

If you have mentioned this with them several times, but they haven’t paid you back, you should make a payment plan that can work for both. 

You can bring it up like this: “I know it’s hard for you to pay back the money I lent you now, so why don’t we try other options and see how it goes?”

How To Remind Someone Who Promised You Money

A reminder is most effective when they are in good moods, so you should observe their behaviors to decide when it is the right time to bring it up. After that, try to give a clear, brief, and reasonable reason to explain why the money is significant to you, then confirm whether they will send the money right away.

• Observe their body language

If you are friends, take time to understand their body language and current status. In the case that both of you are online friends, you can check their latest posts and consider the good timing to make messages and bring it up.

• Send a pleasant greeting

Dropping a pleasant greeting before mentioning the money they promised to send you will help to analyze their response. You can know whether they are in a good mood or not through the way they respond.

“Hi, how is it going recently? Hope you are doing well; I’m reaching out to check on your status.”

• Wait for their response

After dropping your greeting, you should give them time to respond. If you immediately ask them about the promised money, your cares turn out to be fake, and they will get pissed off.

• Use a polite tone

It is necessary to remain polite when you try to remind someone to fulfill a promise.

Fulfilling the promise or not is their option and you can do nothing about it. But it can help to increase the probability by keeping a neutral and polite behavior when they give you an answer that does not meet your expectations.

• Drop follow-up message

If they reply that they just forgot and would send it later, you should not force them to commit; just politely and friendly give a follow-up date, like “Oh ok [name], I got it. I know you have lots of things to do, so just in case you forget, would I remind you on the weekend?”

How Do You Politely Remind Someone Over Text?

A reminder text should be clear and brief because it allows the receiver to quickly understand what you are reminding without wasting time re-reading and guessing.

In addition, to make your reminder politely, you should add some phrases showing that you are caring and understand their situation.

Then, include time/deadlines to make your reminder more effective.

What do you say when sending a reminder?

Choose active but less urgent words for more casual reminders. Subject lines that include phrases such as “Following Up”, “Checking In,” or “Next Steps” work well in these cases. Keeping the tone friendly and choosing the right timing is also important to send a reminder, especially if it brings up a complicated situation like asking for the money someone borrowed from you.

Here are some phrases that you can use to make a reminder:

• Are we meeting at…? / When did we agree on? – when you want to confirm the date and time of a meeting or appointment.
• In case you’ve forgotten,…
• I’d like to remind you…
• Don’t forget to/that…
• Remember to/that…

What should be included in a reminder email?

A reminder email is intended to make someone take action, such as returning a call, paying a bill, etc. Your email should conclude with what you want them to do.

Your reminder email should be precise and brief to ensure the receiver does not get confused with the actions they should take for certain tasks. Thus, it should include a clear reminder within two short sentences while conveying a polite and friendly tone.

If you are sending a deadline reminder email, you must include any other details like deadlines or anything else that will convince the reader that this is important.

Briefly, when sending a reminder email, you should consider these things: 

• A short description of what’s going on
• The certain task/action you want to remind them of
• The timeframe within which this information or action is needed.

What Do You Do To A Promise?

When you make a promise, you should try to fulfill it. Here are what you should do to keep your promise.

• Acknowledge your inability: You will sometimes promise to do something that you can really deliver, which will degrade your credibility. So, before making any promise, consider carefully whether you have the ability to fulfill it or not. 
• Understanding your promise: you must know what you have promised and what you should do to fulfill it.
• Be organized: Write down your promise to avoid forgetting it. Then, you should make a plan to take action and stick to it.
• Be motivated: making a promise is always easier than doing it. You can think of bad outcomes if you can fulfill the promise to keep yourself sticking with the plan.
• Ask for encouragement and support: If there are difficult tasks in your plan of fulfilling your promise, you can ask your friends or family to help you with this. Also, their encouragement will motivate you to stick to your plan.
• If you cannot fulfill the promise, you should express a sincere apology and give alternative solutions to compensate for that. Remember to explain why you cannot fulfill it. You can also make a new promise, but this time it must be the one you can meet.

 Video: How Do You Deal With Empty Promises?

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