Website lets you rent a friend

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Good friends are hard to come by. Not so hard to buy. For a price a website called http://www.rentafriend.com promises to pair you with a pal.

The idea is simple: log on, search for friends in your area by zip code, and there you have it. You can see the profiles of people willing to be your friend. Rent-a-Friend isn’t free, though. You have to pay a monthly membership, and then you have to pay your friend by the hour with the price ranging from $10 to $40.

You can do numerous things with your buddy, but there’s one rule: the friendships are plutonic. Lewis Moore, who offers his friendship on the site, says the majority of the time the responses are from those who use the site to find much more than a friend.

“Some people seem to take that and look at it as a hook-up, like trying to hook-up, and that’s not what I’m about that’s not what I was looking for so,” Moore said.

Moore been a part of Rent-a-Friend for three months. He says he joined because the idea behind it seemed genuine: being there for people who just need a friend.

“It was something new and interesting, and I thought, you know, this is something different, so I just wanted to see what it was about,” Moore said.

The outcome wasn’t what he expected, but can the idea of renting a friend be something that people can get use to?

“I think it’s good in theory, but it’s also weird,” Gabby Daily of Wilmington said. “I don’t think people should have to pay for friends. I think you should be able to get them for free.”

“People can be whoever they want to be online, and then when you meet them in person, you’re like, ‘OK. You don’t look like anything like your picture. You’re not at all what you claim to be,'” said Matthew Beck of Wilmington. “So no, I probably wouldn’t do it.”

In the end it’s up to the Rent-a-Friend to decide if they want to hang out with someone. It’s also up to them to decide a place and time to meet as well as the hourly rate.