How many times have you lent a friend some cash for lunch or a movie only to never see it again? Here's how to get paid back easily and how you can prevent this problem in the future。

你曾有过这样的经历吗?借朋友午饭或电影票钱，却再也没拿回来过?今天就来教你如何轻松使朋友还钱，以及防止未来此类事件的发生。

Money between friends is often awkward, especially if you aren't close. Chances are you don't see all of your friends every week so if you don't get paid back right away, your next chance could be several weeks away. So how can you solve this problem? You have a couple of simple options。

朋友之间谈钱总是很尴尬的，尤其是当你们关系没有那么好时。如果你没有当时立刻被还清时，那很有可能要隔好几周才能再看见他了。因此，如何解决这个问题呢?如下是几个简单的方法。

Let Them Get the Next One

让他们再借一次

Keeping an exact account of who paid for what is ridiculous, but remembering who paid last makes for a better, more manageable system. That way if you paid for the last film, lunch, or whatever, you can just invite them out for the same thing and say:“I got the last one, so do you want to grab this one?”

清清楚楚地记着谁为什么付了帐有些夸张，但是记住上一次是谁付的钱比较合理。因此，如果上次电影或者午饭是你付的钱，你可以再邀请他们出去一次，并且说：“上次是我付的，这次你来吗?”

If the other person doesn't remember, you might have an awkward moment ahead of you in which you have to explain the circumstances, but if you start a trend of trading payments it will become the norm after a few outings。

如果你朋友不记得了，那么解释起来可能会有点尴尬。不过如果你们逐渐习惯了这样做，几次之后就会变成一种自然的事情了。

Get Square

Square服务

When friends borrow small amounts of money from friends, the problem is generally a product of our times: few people carry much cash with them anymore because we don't need cash to buy things by ourselves. However, besides credit cards here we get a better option. You can solve this problem easily with your smart-phone and a service called Square。

当所借的钱数很少时，通常会出现这样的状况：现在不太有人会随身携带现金，因为我们不需要它们了。然而，除了信用卡外，我们还有一个更好的选项：使用你的手机，获得“Square”服务。

You plug in their free or purchase-able credit card reader into your smart-phone's headphone port, download their app, and you can start accepting credit card payments from anybody. When you accept payments with the reader, Square will take a 2.75% cut regardless of the amount. The card reader is tiny so you can take it with you, making it a good way to prevent the problem of your friend owing you money in the first place。

把信用卡读卡器插到手机的耳机孔位置，下载app，然后你就可以从所有人那里接受信用卡付账了。当你用读卡器接受入账时，该服务会收取2.75%的服务费用。它很小，所以方便携带，从而就避免了被欠钱的尴尬。

What You Said

你该说什么

I posed this dilemma on a few social media sites and the majority of you agreed that the "get the next one" method is the simplest course of action. Anamari suggested a slight alternative:

几天前我在一些社交网站上发出了这个帖子，大部分人都觉得“你付下一单”这个方法简单便行。然而，一位网友对此提出了异议：

I wouldn't put someone on the spot by saying "you're paying, right?" or "you've got this one" without fair warning. After all, they might be short on cash in that moment, too, and simply hadn't remembered the last time. If it's really important to get evened up, I'd say something at the time of setting up the date, either very directly or along the lines of "I'm tight for cash this week, can you get me this time? Last time it was me."

“没事先声明的话，我不会跟朋友说‘这次你来付’之类的。毕竟，可能他们真的是钱紧，或者就是真的忘了。如果我手头也很紧张的话，我会在约出去玩的时候就先说好，或者直接告诉他们‘我最近手头有点紧，这次你能付吗?上次是我。’”

I'd argue that in most cases you're not really putting them on the spot when you're dealing with insignificant amounts like $5-10. If they can afford that amount for themselves, coming up with double shouldn't be an issue. Nonetheless, if you want to take a more sensitive approach you can always ask them before you go out so nobody finds themselves in an awkward position when it comes time to pay。

我想说的是，如果你们涉及的金额只是5~10美元这样的话，其实不必担心会让你的朋友尴尬。如果他们自己付得起，那么多付一份也没关系。但是，如果你真的想更谨慎一些，可以选择每次出去前都询问一下，这样当涉及到账单时就没有人会觉得尴尬了。