When Hannah*, a freelancer struggling to survive in London, arrived at her friend’s impromptu birthday dinner late thanks to Tube strikes, the six other (more local) guests had already ordered a myriad of sharing small plates without her. From the ravished spread, she managed to mop up two bites of food and a negroni; then everyone decided to split the bill. “My friend said, ‘You’ve hardly eaten anything,’ but I felt really awkward,” she says. “I probably lost like £20, but it just didn’t feel appropriate to push back at a one-off birthday party.”
Unequal bill splitting is a costly courtesy – and far from a one-off. In fact, one in three Brits regularly overpay on shared bills like Hannah’s to avoid awkward money conversations with their fellow diners. Each year, this so-called “politeness penalty” totals £240 on average, according to new research by Zopa Bank. Notably, young people like Hannah are most likely to foot an unfair share of the bill, with 44 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds saying they often end up paying for far more than they’ve ordered. “It just feels quite tight,” Hannah says of the idea of flagging the issue with the table in an attempt to save some of her hard-earned cash.
