Tell Your Relative You’ll Think About It

If and when a family member approaches you with this sort of request, your gut reaction might be an instant ‘no’ or an instant ‘yes’. Neither of these options is good, and even if you don’t want to do it or can’t, you shouldn’t outright say no. This can be due to a variety of factors. Your family member might become upset and irritable, even offended.

The best way to do it is to take a middle ground. Tell them that you need time to think and if they insist that they need the money right then and there you should consider it a red flag. You’ll either buy more time to figure out a way to turn them down or look at your finances to see how you can fit a loan without making your own situation worse.

Just take some time and remove yourself from that situation. If you’re lucky, they may be able to get a loan from someplace or someone else, getting you off the hook. Whichever the case, ask for enough time to think it over, preferably for a few days.