KIVA

[kashi]

I'm in faster than a rat up a drainpipe.  

Do a bit more later.

[Dataman]

  Kashi

Some notes on KIVA for the others. Individual statitistics are updated immediately but team stat's are only updated once each day. If you make a loan you will see it in your account but may not see it in the team stats for a few hours. Also, about this time of the month Field Partners are crediting funds back to the lenders. This can result in a "feeding frenzy" where everyone rushes to reinvest their funds. This can result fewer loans to choose from and sloooow servers. If you wait a day or two there is a much greater group of loans from which to choose. You can either make a loan and it will take you to Paypal to pay for it or you can preload your account and lend it out over time. You do not have to have a Paypal account. You can make the payment from your credit card. You can be a member of multiple teams. If you want to leave KIVA whatever is in your cash account can be refunded to you via Paypal.

Thanks for the support and enjoy.

[Dennis]

And then there was four!
Am in.

Dennis.

[veebee]

In like Flynn... for five !   


(hmm, wonder if I can borrow money from Kiva to build a super-boinc-machine ....  :coolgleam:  )

[Rob]

I'll look into it more closely on the weekend. Just wasted $200 on a flash new 23 inch LED monitor that I don't need, so need to ease my guilt at the needless spending of money in some way  ;D

[Dataman]

I answered you PM VeeBee. I also got enought payback to make my first loan under B@A.  

:aus1:

EDIT: Very impressive. We are one day old and have already lent $125.00. 

[Dataman]

I received some questions on KIVA so I thought I would post this. Near as I can tell KIVA works like this:
Kiva gives the money to the field partner (a local bank or bank-like entity) who in turn lends it to the borrower (via one of their agents). The agent does charge a small interest/fee (that's how he gets paid). "We" (the lenders) then backfill (in effect cover) the loan. When a payment is due from the borrower, the agent collects it and gives the principle back to the field partner who holds on to it for approx two months (that's how they make their money on interest income). Finally the money is returned to the lender (us). We don't get any interest or fee.

The whole idea is to make small, inexpensive loans to people who could not otherwise get a loan from a proper Bank.

KIVA Donations:
When you make a loan, KIVA will attempt to collect a 15% donation. You do not have to do it. If you click on "edit" you can select $0.0. As a rule of thumb, I donate once about every 4-5 loans.

KIVA Loans:
Read what is on the borrower's page as it varies and is important to making a decision.
1. Most loans are protected from currency fluctuations. Some are not so it is wise to check. Currencies in some of these countries fluctuate greatly. If you have protection your get the funds back at the same rate as when you lent it.
2. A tiny few of the loans have default protection. You are guaranteed a return of your loan. They are few and far between and funded fast.
3. Look at the field partner information. KIVA rates them from one to five stars. I stick to 4-5 star ratings.
4. I am still trying to research this but a large ROI by the field partner may NOT indicate large rates/fees to the borrower. It may indicate that the field partner is very good at investing the funds during the two months they are "a holder in due course". The real "black hole" is what happens between the field agent and the borrower and between the field agent and the field partner. I think that is largely undocumented to us.
5. As a side note, I tend to stay away from loans for "Personal Living Expenses". I tend to loan for the purchase of materials that can be transformed into something that can be sold at a profit. This is just my opinion though.

If you have any questions, just ask in this thread.

[kashi]

Thanks for the info.

I noticed currently if you click on "Edit" for the donation to Kiva, the amount you donate will be matched by the Omidyar Network.
The first loan I made I didn't click on edit and there was no matching donation. I gave them the 15% for my first one, the later ones I gave 5% which is only $1.25 but Kiva receives $2.50.

So what I'm trying to say is if you decide to give a donation to Kiva click on edit even if you wish to stay with the default 15% and Kiva will receive double whatever you donate.

[Dataman]

That's great to know and I did not know that Kashi. 

[Diablo]

I'm in and lending 
Way to go team!

[kashi]

Welcome to the club Diablo.   

Now that's what I call a hat. 

One of the Bolivian women has a corker too. 

[Dennis]

We are catching the other Australian team, they have only loaned $752,775.00 to date!   

Dennis.

[Dataman]

We're gaining on those other Aussie teams ...   Thay had to start at $0 in the beginning too.  

Cool hat Dennis.  :coolgleam:

$250.00 lent in two days!  

We're headed to the coast for the weekend. Maybe she will let me check in with her blackberry dohickey.   Keep those crunchers a-crunching.  

:aus1:

EDIT: They got the hat thing down good in Bolivia too.  biggrin Did anyone notice we are listed in the Top Ten Teams section on three of our loans. The logo looks good. 

[Dennis]

Need to get out and find more gold to finance more loans lol, thats what I am doing in my profile pic, (at KIVA) running my sluice at a lovely place called Eldorado in VIC.
For some reason it was the only picture I could bring over from my old XP lappy to my new windows 7 64 bit lappy.

Dennis.

[kashi]

Thar's gold in them thar hills.  ;D

Hope you get some of it.

I couldn't find a photo of myself, so I have used Shintaro checking out some star knives. Hmm, perhaps I should put an avatar here again too.