What does the Big Book say about money owed and creditors?

The creditor passage (p. 78)

The whole of what the program text says about creditors as an amends is one paragraph on page 78, between going to enemies and the harder cases of jail and job loss. In order:

1. The fact. "Most alcoholics owe money." (p. 78)
2. Don't dodge. "We do not dodge our creditors." (p. 78)
3. Be open about the drinking. Telling them what we are trying to do, "we make no bones about our drinking; they usually know it anyway, whether we think so or not." (p. 78) Nor are we afraid of disclosing our alcoholism "on the theory it may cause financial harm" (p. 78).
4. Expect surprises. "Approached in this way, the most ruthless creditor will sometimes surprise us." (p. 78)
5. Make a deal and say sorry. "Arranging the best deal we can we let these people know we are sorry. Our drinking has made us slow to pay." (p. 78)
6. Lose the fear. We must lose our fear of creditors "no matter how far we have to go" (p. 78), because fear of facing them can lead us to drink (p. 78).

Two things stand out. The amends to a creditor is honesty and a plan, not necessarily payment in full on the day. And the passage ends on fear: the book counts the alcoholic's avoidance of the people he owes as a danger to his sobriety.

Money owed that's tangled with something worse

The next paragraph moves to being "short in our accounts and unable to make good" (p. 78), padding an expense account, and unpaid alimony with a warrant out (pp. 78–79). There the book's guidance is willingness to pay whatever it costs us, but not by sacrificing others, and with the consent of anyone our action would implicate (pp. 79–80). The alimony case ends with a letter, "a small amount of money," and a promise about the future (p. 79). See: What does the Big Book say about amends that could cost you your job or put you in jail?

Money and the family (Chapters 8 and 9)

• What the drinking did. The wives write: "There was never financial security." (p. 105) "The checking account melted like snow in June." (p. 106) Among what the wives dealt with were "The bill collectors, the sheriffs, the angry taxi drivers" (p. 106).
• Recovery takes time. "Father knows he is to blame; it may take him many seasons of hard work to be restored financially, but he shouldn't be reproached." (p. 123) "Perhaps he will never have much money again." (p. 123)
• Don't rush at it. The book thinks it "dangerous if he rushes headlong at his economic problem" (p. 126), because the family ends up neglected. "Although financial recovery is on the way for many of us, we found we could not place money first." (p. 127)

Money owed to an employer (Chapter 10)

Chapter 10 looks at it from the other side. An employee who has accepted the program, which "demands rigorous honesty" (p. 145), may confess that "he has padded his expense account" (p. 145). The book asks the employer: "Can you charge this off as you would a bad account and start fresh with him? If he owes you money you may wish to make terms." (p. 145)

Lending to a newcomer (Chapter 7)

A newcomer "may be broke and homeless" (p. 96). You might help him find a job "or give him a little financial assistance. But you should not deprive your family or creditors of money they should have." (p. 96) So the debts we owe come before generosity with money that isn't really ours to give. See: Should I give a newcomer money or a place to stay?

What the history books add (later, dated)

• Dr. Bob, June 10, 1935. On the day of his last drink, after an operation, Dr. Bob didn't come home for hours: he "commenced to visit creditors and others he had harmed by his behavior" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Pass It On tells it the same way: he "set out to make the rounds of creditors and others he had previously avoided" (Pass It On, 1984). The Big Book's own account, in Chapter 11, where a footnote identifies the man as Dr. Bob (p. 155), gives no date and doesn't mention creditors by name: "One morning" he set out to tell those he feared, and "he made the rounds of people he had hurt" (p. 156), and "He trembled as he went about, for this might mean ruin" (p. 156).
• Bill W. Recalling 1937, Bill writes of "the large sum of money I still owed my Wall Street creditors" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In a 1952 letter he hoped that from his own earnings he could "pay off my former creditors" and said "That would, I think, set the best possible example to other A.A. members" (Pass It On, 1984). Pass It On adds that Bill "may have written in that vein simply because his correspondent had offered him a generous financial gift" (Pass It On, 1984). They are history, not program text.

Read it yourself

• Chapter 6, "Into Action" (p. 78): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
• Chapter 7, "Working With Others" (p. 96): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
• Chapter 8, "To Wives" (pp. 105–106): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt8.pdf
• Chapter 9, "The Family Afterward" (pp. 123–127): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt9.pdf
• Chapter 10, "To Employers" (p. 145): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt10.pdf
• Chapter 11, "A Vision for You" (p. 156): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt11.pdf
• The full books are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org

Sources

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.