Helper wants to borrow $800 HKD

Our helper has been with us for almost 2 months. This morning, she came to us and asked to borrow $800 HKD from us. She said her son, who is still in college back home needs some money. She cannot come up with the money except for asking for help from us. We agreed to deduct the amount from her next pay and gave her the money. We are not unhappy with her borrowing from us. After all, $800 HKD is not a huge amount. However, she asked us right before we were leaving for work. Therefore, she knew we would have little time to talk about this and refuse to do it. That kind caught us by surprise.


We are first time employers and not so experienced with domestic helpers. Just wondering if this is a common practice. Could any one here share some similar experiences? Thanks in advance.

Whilst you don't want to set a precedent for being her personal bank, you might think it's OK for her to have an advance that she will pay back at a rate of $200-$400 per month from salary deductions. Let her know that you'll help her out this time but in the future it will be up to her to manage her finances.


If you make an agreement like this make sure you have it in writing and signed so that she can't say in the future that you've been underpaying her when in fact you are paying her her salary, minus the deduction for the advance repayments.

my helper asked for advance several times during the first few months with us, i.e., about once every one or two months. not very big amount, like several hundred dollars each time. each time she just said she had sent all her money home and had no money to buy food. we always agreed to advance but at last we were honestly a little annoyed. just when we were about to talk to her to manage her financial more carefully she stopped borrowing. in retrospect i think it might be because she was paying back the agency fees.


i remember seeing people talk about this issue before on this forum and some simply lends all the time and some never does (or make it clear at the beginning that a loan will not be made), all for good reasons. on the one hand you may feel hard to decline the small request from someone living in your house, especially if she comes up with a compelling reason such as a sick child, etc. also some people prefer their helper to borrow from themselves rather than from a loan shark. on the other hand you may not want it to become a habit as at the end of the day your relationship is an employment and getting too personal may not be good in some aspects. so it really depends on how you look at this and your knowledge of your helper's personality.

10% month? Outrageous! Still it will make sure she only asks when she's desperate ;). Wouldn't dream of charging interest. My p/t helper's employer welched on her one month & she asked if I could advance that month's salary- about $1,000. No problem, just made damn sure she was sure & would be able to manage till the end of the following month.

i am a domestic helper, most of the time i have money problems....it's always my employer whom i could run to. speaking of money, it's not only hundreds but thousands...my employer never embarrassed me...

i just got back from 5 months holiday in my country, my employer sent me money monthly for my salary...and sent me more money for my executive health check-ups and surgery....

i am just very happy and thankful that God gave me a very nice, kind and very supportive employer...my plea to all employers...please treat your helpers as part of the family.

I have a slightly different problem. Our helper - who has been with us for just under a year - has from the beginning often asked us to advance her salary. We don't really have a problem helping her out if it's important (although admittedly it is starting to get a bit tedious) but now just as we are about to leave for a week's vacation (she will remain in HK), she has asked us to advance her the full salary for January. The reason she gave is that she wants to use the money to buy mobile phones to send back to the Philippines as she can make quite a tidy profit from it. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with her request. On one hand, I feel bad to say no, but on the other hand, it doesn't seem to be a very good reason for requesting salary advances. What should I do? Should I say no? Or advance her only part of her salary? Or give her the full amount?

One thing I have agreed with my helper is to pay her food allowance in cash in advance - 500HKD and the rest of her salary at the end of the month. We told our helper if she has a particular need of cash and a loan for personal reasons then we will have to think about the loan and she should give us some time to think about it. We have loaned her money for dental treatment which I dont think actually happened and we put it in writing and as she paid back - we both signed off on it. We explained this wasnt because we dont trust her but so many arguments may arise from money or misunderstandings and we didnt want our relationship to end up that way.

I offered my helper two salary installments when she seemed to be short of money before or just after her pay day- and would want to ask for small amount advance.

Until such time that she was able to manage her finances well, then she requested me an end on the month pay day. In the phils. there are usually 2 paydays in a month, 15 and 30th so sometimes family members might come across a need something in between.