08-12-2018, 12:52 PM
I don't know the relationship between slowmoneyhawaii and Kiva (maybe somebody can explain it).
We did loan a small amount of money through Kiva to a local farmer. It was our third P2P lending experience. So far the loan repayments have been going well. I tried 2 other small loans through Prosper (similar concept but you can borrow the money for any reason) and one of them defaulted almost immediately. I understand that they have since changed their lending options such that you can spread your risk out among a much larger pool to reduce shrinkage, but I wouldn't loan there again.
Kiva seems fine. A long time ago somebody taught me never to loan more unsecured money out than I could afford to immediately write off. Your $25 loan (or whatever) might not seem like much but when combined with hundreds or thousands of similar loans, can make a huge difference.
We did loan a small amount of money through Kiva to a local farmer. It was our third P2P lending experience. So far the loan repayments have been going well. I tried 2 other small loans through Prosper (similar concept but you can borrow the money for any reason) and one of them defaulted almost immediately. I understand that they have since changed their lending options such that you can spread your risk out among a much larger pool to reduce shrinkage, but I wouldn't loan there again.
Kiva seems fine. A long time ago somebody taught me never to loan more unsecured money out than I could afford to immediately write off. Your $25 loan (or whatever) might not seem like much but when combined with hundreds or thousands of similar loans, can make a huge difference.