GoFundMe- Is it me?

I only receive ones from family and friends - e.g. grandchild doing a sponsored walk or something. Where are you getting all this stuff?

I take out insurance when I go away. No sympathy if anyone doesn't.

Allsorts

I take out insurance when I go away. No sympathy if anyone doesn't.

I agree. Even our dogs have travel insurance abroad.

Allsorts

I take out insurance when I go away. No sympathy if anyone doesn't.

This.

Similar to car insurance, for me, it’s a pity proof of insurance isn’t needed at the point of purchase. Difficult to police I know, as rogue drivers take out a policy, have ‘proof’ on their phones, but neglect to pay any installments! Currently, a chap in the NE is appealing for funds to get home. Although he had taken out insurance, he hadn’t owned up to an existing condition, so his insurers are refusing to pay out. He needs £45K.

Just to add that 20+ years ago when DD2 booked a flight to New York via Thomas Cook, they actually did ask to see her proof of insurance - she’s a wheelchair user.

If you can’t afford the insurance, you shouldn’t be going on the holiday.

I’ve seen several GoFundmes for people who have passed away and their family ask for help in “giving him/her the send off they deserve”.

I find those a bit odd. I know some people have genuinely fallen on hard times but if it were me I would just do my very best with the budget I have available.

I agree Primrose53 If someone is raising money for charity then fair play, but it doesn’t sit well with me when people ask for money for a specific personal issue, or to pay for something that the rest of us have to fund ourselves. I do feel a bit mean saying this, and I suppose everyone is different, but I certainly wouldn’t do it.

Luckygirl3

I only receive ones from family and friends - e.g. grandchild doing a sponsored walk or something. Where are you getting all this stuff?

As well as on social media, there are articles on local news pages. I have even seen a Facebook page with a couple asking for donations towards a ‘dream wedding’.

I have contributed when DD's friend's daughter was killed in an accident and it was to help towards the funeral.
Also when people I knew were running and the proceeds were going to a known charity.

Otherwise, no.

“Dream wedding”? Honestly!!! How greedy.

A friend of ours husband recently died, she started one and it was mentioned at his funeral for the two hospice locally that looked after him.
We gave to that. The right kind of purpose I think.

That probably will be a splash of a comment but I find the title: Go fund me, very rude. Where is please, thank you, would you etc. Also, why not they go fund me

Milsa

That probably will be a splash of a comment but I find the title: Go fund me, very rude. Where is please, thank you, would you etc. Also, why not they go fund me

It’s like, Just Giving. I always think, What do you mean by Just?

It's also difficult to know who the genuine cases are and those trying their luck
I can sympathise with people who have an unexpected death in the family and need help with the funeral or giving a terminally ill child a trip to Disneyland but funding somebody's 'dream wedding'? or help pay for the fool who didn't take out holiday insurance to get back home? what a joke, that's really taking the mick, sadly though, some people would fall for it and donate

The three people that Daddima mentions who are doing a "GoFundMe" because they were taken ill on holiday and need it to pay for treatment and to get them back home could have done the appeal before their holiday - with the plea that they had managed to find the cost of the holiday they so much needed but were still short of the extra to pay for the insurance. That would have been far less than the bill they were now facing.

I don’t agree with this ‘Go fund’ business at all probably because I ve always ‘managed’ even when having very little,
I ve ‘managed’ and I d never ask anyone to help me and I don’t want to be asked by strangers to fund their dogs having an operation, or getting their mums body home, or paying for hospital treatment or a funeral
I give to my charities and of course I d help a close family member but am I funding others carelessness no I m not

I’m sure we could all think of occasions when we could do with more money but to actually ask for it isn’t really something that most of our generation would do. If I believe in a certain cause I’d give to it anyway without being asked.

I have first hand knowledge of how Go Fund Me has saved the life of the young boy who lives next door to us. He was diagnosed with an incurable and aggressive brain tumour. There was no hope for him until the family learned there was a drug approved and paid for but only for adults. There had been insufficient use of it to prove its use for children. However, it was available if paid for privately. Go Fund Me was set up and its contributors allowed this to happen. The family lived on a knife edge as there was no way they could pay for it without the Fund. The result is that the treatment worked and we now have a healthy, happy child next door but above all his success has led to the drug now being available to other children. He will have to continue the medication for the foreseeable future but the family no longer has to hand over thousands of pounds on a regular basis. Their relief is beyond describing.
However, this belief that somehow it is okay to use this kind of funding for almost anything has grown. Coronation Street hasn’t helped when the characters seem to suggesting they set up GoFundMe for all sorts of things. It’s a shame if this kind of attitude leads people to doubt its use.

Daddima

I’m just looking at my social media, and there are three posts asking for contributions to a GoFundMe.
Two are for people who have been taken ill on holiday and are fundraising to have them brought home , and one for someone who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Now, I do think that everyone should have travel insurance, and I do understand that when we hear a sad tale of illness we feel we want to help, and firing in a fiver can make us feel better, but hasn’t the GoFundMe culture gone far enough, or am I Hard Hearted Hannah?

No, you certainly aren't hard-hearted, just being naturally wary.

Scams abound, in all sorts of forms, and the traditional sob-story about an emergency health crisis is a tried and tested method for prising open wallets and purses.
Go Fund Me is a Godsend for cheats, liars and unprincipled thieves who don't see the point in working for a living when a damn good tale-of-woe can extract the hard‐earned cash of others.

I’d only do it if I knew the person or one of my family knew them.

I only do it if I know the people involved. I agree that I won't give to things like weddings (have the one you can afford), trips for high school kids (if the parents can't afford it, they don't go, worked for me as a child), things that could have been prevented (travel insurance, life insurance).

I’ve donated lots of times to people I know or friends of people I know ( I’m thinking of a young woman who lost all her limbs to sepsis and her family were raising money for the prostheses she would need). I look on it as instead of sending a bunch of flowers I’m just sending the money instead. Only for genuine cases though, not to fund anything frivolous.

Shockingly, some people hijack what is (mostly) a well meant activity.
A woman in my town went to prison after using GoFundMe to pay for a very pleasant lifestyle. She alleged that she was gravely ill, and that money was needed for special treatment abroad.
She was outed by a doctor ,as the " foreign hospital" in her picture was from the local one, complete with NHS hospital gown, and UK plug sockets, depicting her after a routine operation.