Kiva - Loans to the Poor

[jenkinsdakota]

I would like to bring everyone's attention to the following site:

http://www.kiva.org/

It allows you to make loans to poor people. According to the statistics at Kiva Friends (http://www.kivafriends.org/) the default rate is 0.10 per cent which pretty much makes your loan risk free if diversified enough.

All you need is a credit card and Australians can join. There are many Australians there already. I have already loaned $50 to someone in Tonga and Pakistan. If you want to get your money back after it is repaid you use Pay Pal.

You don't actually lose any money, yet your loan helps the poor very much.

[nanasabj]

this is lovely! i wish i had a credit card.. althou it wouldnt be any good to use as i would have maxed it out lol :D

[ziggie]

Thanks for posting a link to this site. :)

If you are willing to consider this cause, please investigate the legitimacy of this group before loaning any money.

It would be great to hear from anyone whose loan has been completed and how it went throughout the process.:yes:

[jenkinsdakota]

I doubt Kiva is a scam.

Here is positive media coverage from the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118765256378003494.html

And the person who really made Kiva popular is Bill Clinton. Here is a transcript of what he said in an interview:


VAN SUSTEREN: Well, that is a little bit like the one of the organizations you talk about in your book, in the new book "Giving," is, Kiva.org, which, incidentally, we put on our blog yesterday, because we thought it was such a great idea.
CLINTON: Unbelievable.
VAN SUSTEREN: Kiva.org is what? That lets everybody contribute, not just the fat cats.
CLINTON: Kiva.org gives you a chance to do what Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for last year. And for 30 years he was one of the world's great micro-credit lenders. He made over 7 million loans, 97 percent to village women with a 98.5 percent payback rate.
And over half of the people he loaned money to worked their way above the international poverty line so that per capita income in his native Bangladesh moved from less than a dollar a day to about $570 a year, largely driven by the Grameen Bank and other projects like that in good times and bad.
So with Kiva.org, Greta Van Susteren and Bill Clinton can get on their Web site and we can see people that need money all over the world.
VAN SUSTEREN: How much money are you talking about?
CLINTON: As little as $25. You are talking about a lot of this money is loaned to people in countries with a per capita income of less than a dollar a day. You can see basket-makers and weavers in Africa. You can see a guy in Kabul, Afghanistan, who repaired radios.
VAN SUSTEREN: So if I go on Kiva.org and give $25, I can actually track to see how it changes someone's life?
CLINTON: Yes. If you go on Kiva, you can give as little as $25, almost nobody gives more than $300 or $400. And you may — let's suppose you pick a basket cooperative in Rwanda, and they want to get together after the horrible problems of a decade ago and bring people together across ethnic lines and make baskets and market them.
Let's suppose they need to borrow $400, well, you can either — you can give them $400, but you can give $25 and then eventually, let's say, 10 or 15 together will provide the $400. Then you loan them the money through a local group in Rwanda, and they report back in and pay the money back.
And every couple of weeks you can go back to Kiva and get a report as if you were their banker. They will report in, how are we doing with your money? How is our business doing? Are they repaying the loan?
Then when the loans are paid, you can take your money back or turn around and pick someone else to loan it to.
VAN SUSTEREN: It is an extraordinary program.
CLINTON: Amazing.
(CROSSTALK)
CLINTON: And it is all on the Internet. And it makes you feel like you know these people. I mean, they are — you see their picture. You know the facts of their business. You know what their lives are like.
And you know whether you are doing it alone or — and you can have like a virtual cooperative bank because you wind up — you may be joined by people all over America or all around the world in helping this particular business, whatever you pick.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298472,00.html

Of course, Bill Clinton is to a degree a liar ("I did not have sexual relations with that woman") so I suppose you should make your own judgments.

If you don't trust Bill Clinton, Oprah endorses Kiva. See http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200709/20070904/slide_20070904_350_112.jhtml

[woven_wings]

I have given Kiva loans in the past and I have 4 going at the moment.

Never heard any stories about people not getting their money back. I have had no issues and all my friends/family members who also do this have had no issues.

They have a risk rating for each loan and dont go directly to the person/s but through an agency in the country. They also have an issue rating for the agency. I have never seen any agencies with a rating that shows issues.

Oprah also does these. She is a firm supporter of this organisation.

You can also support via Pay Pal directly from your bank account.

A worthy cause and highly reccommended by myself.

[Ffrenchknickers]

I have heard of this before.....its really cool:thumbsup:

[itssunday]

I have heard of this before.....its really cool:thumbsup:
oo sounds good i'll have to check that one out

[MoonstoneMumma]

what a fantastic idea! once i research this properly i think i will def being joining up. you could put in like $50 and then when you get that back re-invest it into some one else's business and so on.

[mim]

Had a bit of a read of the site, just wondering what sort of interest do the borrowers pay on the loan? And what happens to the interest, where does it go? Just wondering if someone is massively profiting on this :o
Anyone know?

[adorablekids]

OH YAY... Had never heard of this site and just went and had a look and there was a group of 5 ladies that are wanting to get cows etc and they only needed $25 for their loan to be reached so why not!! Its the price of a meal out for us and we have helping someone to better their live... Not worried if it comes back and it is a small amount to us but HUGE amount to them.... YAY cant wait to hear the reports on how they are going.
THANKS FOR SHOWING ME THIS SITE

[Cupcake]

What a great idea :)
I will be doing it for sure :thumbsup: I love things like this :yelclap: