They made a point that Han Solo was only in it for the money. While not the most noble cause, he certainly needed it to pay back Jabba. They gave him his money (presumably cash in those boxes at Yavin).
I’m sure he took a little off the top to cover transportation expenses, etc; but the money was clearly meant for Jabba.
Why didn’t Jabba have that money before Hoth? How much time was elapsed between Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. His helping Luke showed that Han wanted to aid the rebellion (or at least his friends in the rebellion). So what was wrong with him just flying over, giving the money to Jabba, and then heading back to join his friends?
Maybe Jabba wasn’t the type to let him off the hook that easily. If he went back to Jabba with the money, Jabba would probably not let him leave again without still being indebted to him in some way. I think this one is the most probable, Jabba was 100% mafia after all and you don’t have someone as good as Han go around without a leash.
Or maybe he wanted to keep the money to himself, or maybe he gave it back for the war effort when he joined the alliance?
I don’t remember if this was from the movie or the novelization (or both), but while on Hoth, Han planned to go to Jabba as soon as he got the Falcon repaired. They had run into a bounty hunter at their last stop, so he wanted to clear stuff with Jabba ASAP.
Given that, and Han’s personality, I’d guess he was gambling that he could keep the money, and avoid Jabba for the rest of his life. How much did he owe Jabba? 10000 or less, most likely, since that was what he wanted Obi-Wan to pay him for the trip to Alderaan. Maybe he thought Jabba wouldn’t spend money on bounty hunters just to get his 10000 back. Once he found out that Jabba was willing to put that kind of effort forth, he decided that paying back Jabba was a better career move.
When he came back to save Luke’s life, he was officially part of the Alliance at that point. I don’t actually know much if any of the EU that takes place between ANH and ESB, but I imagine Han began helping out, and there was always stuff to do that kept his mind off Jabba. He may also have figured that hiding out with the Rebels would give him some cover from Jabba. Then, as muldoonthief says, they ran into that bounty hunter on Ord Mantell, and he realized he couldn’t put it off any longer. But then the Imperials attacked, and Han didn’t have a chance to get to Jabba before he got statufied.
As Luke pointed out, Princess Organa was rich. Past tense; “there seems to be a little problem arranging transfers from the bank of Alderaan these days.” It probably took a while for her to assemble the reward money.
In RotJ when Han is thawed out and brought before Jabba he says “I have the money, I’ll pay you double, you’re throwing away a fortune! Jabba don’t be a fool!” I assumed he kept the money he was given for rescuing Leia and helping destroy the Death Star and had simply been too busy to go back to Tattooine and deliver the money to Jabba. Instead of one crime boss on one planet(that you don’t even have to work with anymore now that you’re a rebel instead of a smuggler) he had the whole flipping Empire to dodge. So he had the money, honey, he just didn’t have the time.
Yeah, he has the reward money as of the time the Rebels were preparing to take on the Death Star. Luke mentions that Han has his reward and is taking off, and indeed, we see Han unloading boxes of what could just be Wookie Snacks, but which I always assumed was cases of money or other valuables. It would make sense that the Rebels would try to keep a supply of hard currency on hand to pay for supplies, parts, bribes, etc., and it was probably this petty cash fund that they got Han’s reward from.
(In the novelization of A New Hope, it’s mentioned that Luke’s reward was an X-Wing Starfighter, which came with the string that he was obliged to use it to help the Alliance)
IIRC, it’s a relatively short period of time between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, like a matter of six months or a year, and the Rebels still haven’t gotten settled into their base yet at Hoth. Probably Han has been caught up in the rush of helping them out and trying to dodge the Imperials and just hasn’t had a good time to slip off and pay his debt yet. He was about to do this at the beginning of Empire Strikes Back before everything went cockeyed, and then before he had a chance to even properly give Darth Vader the slip, he got captured and handed over to Boba Fett.
Indeed, by the time of Return of the Jedi, Han has the money, wants to do nothing more than to pay it back to Jabba, and Jabba has to go and blow the whole thing by assuming that Han was trying to bullshit his way out of a bad situation. Now, thanks to Han’s sugar-mamma Leia, he gets to keep the cash and get a really sweet stereo system for the Falcon.
EDIT: At this point, I’m reminded of a quote from the possibly insane Air Force General Curtis LeMay: “I have neither the time nor the inclination to tell incompetence apart from bad fortune.”