Go Fund me or Go **** off?

annsixty

I have read this morning that the mother of the teenager missing in Tenerife is relying on crowdfunding for her hotel accommodation.
Sadly I have also read but not verified is that the teenager is not a very nice person being charged with serious offences.
As I said I can’t corroborate this information.

He narrowly escaped jail after appearing at Preston Crown Court.

He was charged with four others for attacking a 17yr old with a machete, golf club and axe, they split open the defendants head.

As they were all 17 at the time they were given community service.

The above is being reported by many news outlets.

Anyone can set up a Gofundme page, irrespective of whether it’s for a sick child or a wedding, and the commission is 2.9%. The things some people want crowdfunding for is mind-boggling.

The commission is 1.9% for a registered charity. Justgiving operate in a similar way. You have to go through hoops to prove you’re a registered charity, rightfully so. Gift aid can also also claimed for a charity.

Tomrah

I funded a doctor working in Gaza. He carried on working but wanted his elderly mother and children who were injured to go to Egypt so they could receive medical treatment.

How were they going to get to Egypt?

I only know of one couple who went on a crowd funding site.
It was totally inappropriate. I can’t say what it was because someone here may recognise it. Her parents made them remove it when they found out.

I only contribute if I know of the person and it's a worthy cause. Definitely not for people who just want my money to go off somewhere and have fun at my expense! And some idiot going on his ' holiday ' with NO medical insurance is a definite No No. Who do these people think we are?

I was a bit shocked when a young relative asked for money for a particular purpose on line. But it was explained to me that asking for small donations is a way people in certain circles with very little money can fund each other for more expensive things through a group effort. They give small donations to other people's requests in turn. I am lucky to have enough money not to need to do this. I suppose it can be exploited. But so can many charitable activities..

My son in law is 39 and was diagnosed with MND 3 years ago. They had 2 little boys and one on the way when he was diagnosed. He had to give up a job that he loved. His house has to be totally renovated to give access for a wheelchair and a downstairs wet room. They have to still pay their mortgage as well as bills and can’t move as him not working they won’t get another mortgage or even a loan

Some people just have to bite their pride and ask for help. It’s not easy but the alternative could have been them losing their home

On top of that one of their neighbours got wind of it and is constantly putting horrible posts up about go fund me

I have just contributed some money to a Go fund Me - cancer charity - in memory of a lovely young girl, who was taken too early. No way would I encourage foolishness, as is the case with this gentleman.

This Go Fund Me is getting out of hand. We have always taken holiday insurance out from the moment we book. It has proved invaluable in a couple of instances.
There's always someone in our local groups wanting funding for something or other.
The other thing to be an ever rising request is Anyone Gifting. There is someone on a local group who is forever asking for something. So if anyone has something to get rid of - fair enough. But if you can't afford something don't be begging other people.

Someone was on Facebook yesterday having had knee surgery abroad rather than wait for NHS as she was a weightlifter which was funded by GoFundMe. Sorry, if you want it fund it yourself.

I can’t that man missing did all that. See how you can b3 drawn8n, 8m crying with tge parents but we don5 know tge story do we.
The man that went away to Turkey with health conditions and no insurance was totally irresponsible, I feel sorry for his son dealing with it all., surely he shouldn’t be held responsible for his father. I would never ever expect my children to get into debt for me, it’s very sad for the adult children.What wasn’t the man's wife with him, she probably thought it stupid.
I would only fund someone I know to be genuine I’m afraid.

Cossy

Dickens

I wouldn't contribute to any crowdfund where I believed the recipient had other 'options' to responsibly source his or her own funds. Nor anything that was for what I would consider a trivial event. Judgmental? Yes it is, but I can only consider what I would do in any given circumstances, and I would not do what he did.

If he'd been visiting Turkey to see a dying relative and time and money were tight, that might be a different matter. But this was a holiday and he was prepared to put his family through the stress of funding his emergency treatment, which they obviously cannot - so they now need rescuing financially.

He was selfish and inconsiderate, and a tad 'entitled', and that type of individual raises my hackles.

We have NEVER travelled anywhere without adequate insurance. If we couldn’t afford the insurance we wouldn’t go on the holiday.

I completely agree. We always have travel insurance, and in fact, when you book a cruise, you can't just tick the 'I have got insurance' box, you have to give details of provider and policy number too. Maybe this rule should be applied to all holidays and flights?

Overseas Travel insurance costs me a small fortune, but I would not go without it.

I have donated to Go Fund me but only for a small number of cases I know to be genuine or for charity.

HousePlantQueen we went on a cruise in 2013 and as you say you have to have travel insurance on booking. On the way back going into Gibraltar my DH took ill and was admitted into the onboard clinic. They arranged for him to go to the hospital in Gibraltar and he was assessed and treated. I had to nip across the road to Morissons for a prescription and I kept the receipt. We got a taxi back to the ship in plenty of time before it left. When we got home we sent all our receipts and costs to the insurance company and got all our money back. It would have cost us nearly a thousand pounds otherwise.
We were due to go to Jersey in 2017 but in June my DH was admitted to hospital and was seriously ill. Fortunately the travel insurance got us our hotel costs back. We lost out on the flights because I told the airline we would take the flights at a later date which they accepted but sadly we couldn't go. Not the insurance company's fault but still happy to have got a good part of the holiday back.
We would never book a holiday without insurance. It would be foolish not to.

Regarding the go fund me page for Jay Slater (the missing lad in Tenerife) there are some interesting threads on X from those who know him and the young lady who has started the fund.

She hasn’t shown her face in any of the press interviews, if the threads are even remotely close to the truth, I am totally shocked.

(They are easily found, but I will not post them on here)

There are some interesting comparisons being drawn.
I would hate to think , as has been suggested, that this is a scam.
A lot of people are praying for this young man and hoping he is found.
I hope sincerely their trust is not betrayed.

I wouldn’t dream of contributing to whatever fund has been set up for him. He stupidly went out alone to walk for miles over mountainous terrain without water or a fully charged phone.

Whereas I might think that some things people do are frankly stupid, I know we all do stupid things at times, and that’s often when people need help the most.

The young lad who is missing is a case in point. If he were mine I’d be ‘having words’ when I saw him (which I hope his mum will be able to do) but in the meantime I would hope against hope (if crowdfunding was the only way forward) that people wouldn’t condemn him to death for being young and an idiot.

People asking for free money for celebrations etc have no chance with me, though.

GrannyGravy13

Regarding the go fund me page for Jay Slater (the missing lad in Tenerife) there are some interesting threads on X from those who know him and the young lady who has started the fund.

She hasn’t shown her face in any of the press interviews, if the threads are even remotely close to the truth, I am totally shocked.

(They are easily found, but I will not post them on here)

I've just read the posts... 😳😳😳

My travel insurance, annual world wide with pages of medical conditions cost me £2,000 ...including the USA ...my only fear is that if I ever need to claim, they will find SOME way not to pay ! I keep them up to date, as requested, on any new tests, X rays, etc etc......but there is so often a claimant (not only on my Insurer, All Clear,) who is turned down for some totally unreasonable reason ! I have advised anyone who has to deal with me if I need to claim , to contact the Insurance Obudsman if they refuse a claim (my e x husband was an Insurance broker at Lloyds of London .....his mantra was ;NEVER PAY OUT !;...........and this seems to still be normal sadly !

V3ra there are many threads all saying the same things?

Mumsnet is full of worrying claims about the 17 year old on Tenerife

Oh, I haven’t seen that. Does it look like someone has killed him? I did hear something about his mum wondering if he had been kidnapped but not why she might have thought that.

Iam64

Mumsnet is full of worrying claims about the 17 year old on Tenerife

1) he is not 17

2) he is not naive

3) check out social media

Doodledog

Oh, I haven’t seen that. Does it look like someone has killed him? I did hear something about his mum wondering if he had been kidnapped but not why she might have thought that.

Drugs