Kiva.org Loans

[leaf]

check out this Field Partner
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=about&action=aboutPartner&id=13
They are only taking 3% interest whereas the Average Local Money Lender Interest Rate is 125%

Also, check out this thread for some good info on interest rates
http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,368.0.html

Not to "rain on the parade" but when looking at that particular field partner you'll see that the average kiva loan is 22% and the avg. local money lender rate is 82%. That does look impressive, except that when they refer to "local money lender rate" they mean loan sharks, not banking institutions. The argument that "look we're cheaper than the local loan sharks" doesn't fly with me. They should be comparable with local banking rates, not local loan sharks because their cost of money is zero.

As for the origination costs, they're way offbase if they're saying (as they do in the thread you pointed to) that origination costs would be $50 on a  $500 loan.

You picked one foundation that has made a total of 3 loans and has no currently on going loans. It may be just me but I'd much rather donate to the individual organizations rather than go through kiva where they take money off the top for their costs.

my point being though, that if you think the high interest rates are unfair to the people - you CAN find loaners who have low 'western world' type rates.  There was another couple registrations here today, and the most reason loan funded was this one
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=35990
provided by these people
http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=9

only 11%... I would say that is not bad at all.  That is better than a lot of car loans or other short term type loans available.

[yingyang0]

my point being though, that if you think the high interest rates are unfair to the people - you CAN find loaners who have low 'western world' type rates.  There was another couple registrations here today, and the most reason loan funded was this one
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=35990
provided by these people
http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=9

only 11%... I would say that is not bad at all.  That is better than a lot of car loans or other short term type loans available.

You do know that you already responded to my post right? (See posting Feb. 15, 10:34:26 AM) And no, 11% isn't bad at all. However my posting was about kiva in general and the average interest rate.

[leaf]

my point being though, that if you think the high interest rates are unfair to the people - you CAN find loaners who have low 'western world' type rates.  There was another couple registrations here today, and the most reason loan funded was this one
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=35990
provided by these people
http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=9

only 11%... I would say that is not bad at all.  That is better than a lot of car loans or other short term type loans available.

You do know that you already responded to my post right? (See posting Feb. 15, 10:34:26 AM) And no, 11% isn't bad at all. However my posting was about kiva in general and the average interest rate.

yes i agree the average rate is higher and not as good as this lender.
Yeah, i know i responded to your post allready I just thought i had more �fuel�for my argument.    I will let it die now.

[yingyang0]

I will let it die now.

Bump  Charity is an important topic.

[madelaide]

This week I received the first paybacks from my loans, and I'm going to help this lady from Nicaragua next:
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=42125

Regards,
Adelaide

[yingyang0]

This week I received the first paybacks from my loans, and I'm going to help this lady from Nicaragua next:
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=42125

Regards,
Adelaide

Too late  I have to admit I'm warming up more to kiva. It's definitely better than prosper.com (I've learned that they advertise default rates better than actual, and recovery rate are horrible).

Question: How many loans have you made on kiva and does anyone know the actual default rate on kiva?

[phildate]

I've made a total of 8 loans on Kiva now and all have received payments. No-one has re-paid completely but I am very reassured by the reports on the various projects I have loaned to. It definitely makes a big difference to people's lives and I will be sponsoring some more projects shortly.

[Karimala]

I have three loans and gave one to my daughter for her birthday, and our ladies are all paying back on time.  I'll be adding more in the months to come. 

From what I have read on the site, the default rate is somewhere around 3%.  Most of the defaults are due to bad conditions in the region, such as ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip.  Each field partner is ranked based on their risk of default, and the majority of them have five star rankings.  They also list the field partner's default rate and delinquency rate.   

[leaf]

actually i think the default rate is .1%
check out this page

http://www.kiva.org/about/risk/overview

Microstockgroup has a couple loans where 4 or 5 people took the loan together.  If one of the is not able to pay the others have to cover her share of the loan.  A great idea for accountability and culturing a support group for the women.

this one for example

[kosmikkreeper]

My objective is to have a total of 12 loans on rotation. I'm at 8 now and in April 4 more are going in.  I love the site!   

[madelaide]

I plan to make a loan per month, and this is my third loan.  The first two were in Feb and the first payback was in time.

I'm not surprised that loan filled quickly, as it was a small one.

What do you think about high-value loans to just one person?  I saw one yesterday of a lady in Togo, she was asking US$1,200 for buying shoes for resale.  This is a lot of money in a 3rd world country for someone that probably doesn't have a bank account to handle, not to mention that to some people big numbers are confusing.  We had a maid who could not deal with maths in hundreds.  I don't know how close the NGOs follow these people, not to let them be fooled by some "smart" trader.

Regards,
Adelaide

[Karimala]

I'm also going to do one loan per month.  I'd love to do more, but when I do, I start clicking away on all the people to read their stories and get carried away with wanting to help people.  Pretty soon I've spent too much and broken the bank!    

I'm also going to continue giving loans to my kids, and alternate back and forth between them every month.  This is such a cool family project and a great way to teach them the benefits of giving while also * away money for them that they can use later, if needed.

[leaf]

well we should try and all support one person at the beginning of the next month after our stock royalties are paid out.  We were going to try this before, but then I forgot about it.

So after the shutterstock payments or something are paid out, how about we pick a loan.

[kosmikkreeper]

well we should try and all support one person at the beginning of the next month after our stock royalties are paid out.  We were going to try this before, but then I forgot about it.

So after the shutterstock payments or something are paid out, how about we pick a loan.

Great Idea!

[madelaide]

So after the shutterstock payments or something are paid out, how about we pick a loan.

So wehn do we do that?  If I know how many people are going to take part in it, I'll email Kiva and see if we can "book" a entrepreneur on our budget.

Regards,
Adelaide

[leaf]

well i am still waiting for my payment....

i have read somewhere, perhaps the faq, that you cannot 'book' an entrepeneur.  We can just decide on one though and then all loan the same day.. we should be able to get in on it if we are reasonable quick and don't pick on that is on the front page.

[Seren]

I would do something like this but it appears you can't participate if you're not from the states?  Or did I do something wrong?

[Mouse72]

I am from the Netherlands and had no problem lending money.
I had never heard of Kiwa, but really love the idea of helping out tjis way. Thanks for the tip!

[madelaide]

Seren,

I'm in Brazil and I can lend, so I don't see any technical reason for you not being able to do it, unless there is some legal aspect.

Leaf,

I'll try to contact Kiva... who knows? 

Regards,
Adelaide

[madelaide]

I emailed Kiva last night, but it seems it is taking a while for them to answer mail.  Oh well.

I ended up lending US$25 to an entrepreneur - it was the last share of that loan for a lady in Tanzania.  But I'm ready to lend US$25 to "our" entrepreneur.

Regards,
Adelaide

[leaf]

good.. well i am still waiting for the shutterstock payment to come through, then i will be ready

[madelaide]

Well, got their reply, they can't make a special arrangement for us.  Too bad...

Thank you so much for your support of Kiva!

At this time, we cannot hold any loans for groups to fund. My apologies for the inconvenience. However, we are currently working on a formal group feature that will hopefully be launched on the website in the next couple of months.

So Leaf, maybe we could set a day and hour for people to "meet" here and make the group donation?

Regards,
Adelaide

[leaf]

yeah, that would be a good idea i think.   We can set a time and date and at that time we choose who to sponser (perhaps one that is 'burried' in the site somewhere).

Have you got your shutterstock payment yet?  I guess it doesn't really matter... they say they pay by the middle of the month so we could say that on Apr 15 we choose our sponsor person.

[madelaide]

So, April 15th.  22pm GMT? 

Who's taking part, so we have a rough estimate of our budget? 

I'll put US$25.

Regards,
Adelaide

[digiology]

I'll do $25 too.