It's the most serious question of all. The evidence is extremely mixed. I love David Roodman's Time Magazine quote for its brevity: "On current evidence, the best estimate of the average impact of microcredit on the…
Sure, Banco D-Miro in Ecuador. When I say I face no forex risk, this is because Ecuador is a dollarized country and I operate in dollars, obviously Europeans etc. would face forex risk. The interest rates are visible…
Completely accurate, which is why I state "I am basing this entire analysis on a number of large assumptions. Firstly, that my current outstanding loans will be repaid with the same reliability as my completed loans",…
Correct, I failed to mention this in my original post. My fee was $35 (3.5% of $1000), and my total bids have been $1818 over the period, so this equates to about 2% overall. Unsure if I have to pay this 3.5% to get the…
I saw the HN article questioning Zidisha - Modern Microcredit I think. My experience has differed from that author's impression, and I have tried to be as transparent as possible to explain with hard data why. But I…
I would only need to raise my average APR by about 0.2% to cover the PayPal fee. Interestingly Kiva gets around this: "Kiva is the first organization that PayPal has supported by providing free payment processing. This…
[I posted this on the MMC website, should have posted here! Mildly edited to relfect context here] I get bogged down in such interest rate debates, so decided to put my money where my mouth is and lend on Zidisha - MY…
I am not sure what to make of this comment - are you suggesting that Kiva is a "poison on humanity" for doing this, or that I am for saying it?! Please clarify! For further reference on this specific point you might…
This article does not proove Kiva's interest rates are higher than those stated, as we don't have Kiva's interest rates (for some reason), but they proove that actual APR interest rates are higher than the portfolio…
It is interesting to see how readers come away with different gists of this article. I do think that Kiva could be a lot better than it currently is, and other similar companies have addressed some of the issues, only…
These are valid points. If I could focus on just one issue of legality, what about insisting that child labor laws are obeyed? I know you could question this on the basis of one person is pro-hunting, another is…
Kiva does not state interest rates. You are viewing portfolio yields, which are not interest rates and consistently underestimate the actual rates. For a post specifically discussing this topic with 10 examples using…
It's the most serious question of all. The evidence is extremely mixed. I love David Roodman's Time Magazine quote for its brevity: "On current evidence, the best estimate of the average impact of microcredit on the…
Sure, Banco D-Miro in Ecuador. When I say I face no forex risk, this is because Ecuador is a dollarized country and I operate in dollars, obviously Europeans etc. would face forex risk. The interest rates are visible…
Completely accurate, which is why I state "I am basing this entire analysis on a number of large assumptions. Firstly, that my current outstanding loans will be repaid with the same reliability as my completed loans",…
Correct, I failed to mention this in my original post. My fee was $35 (3.5% of $1000), and my total bids have been $1818 over the period, so this equates to about 2% overall. Unsure if I have to pay this 3.5% to get the…
I saw the HN article questioning Zidisha - Modern Microcredit I think. My experience has differed from that author's impression, and I have tried to be as transparent as possible to explain with hard data why. But I…
I would only need to raise my average APR by about 0.2% to cover the PayPal fee. Interestingly Kiva gets around this: "Kiva is the first organization that PayPal has supported by providing free payment processing. This…
[I posted this on the MMC website, should have posted here! Mildly edited to relfect context here] I get bogged down in such interest rate debates, so decided to put my money where my mouth is and lend on Zidisha - MY…
I am not sure what to make of this comment - are you suggesting that Kiva is a "poison on humanity" for doing this, or that I am for saying it?! Please clarify! For further reference on this specific point you might…
This article does not proove Kiva's interest rates are higher than those stated, as we don't have Kiva's interest rates (for some reason), but they proove that actual APR interest rates are higher than the portfolio…
It is interesting to see how readers come away with different gists of this article. I do think that Kiva could be a lot better than it currently is, and other similar companies have addressed some of the issues, only…
These are valid points. If I could focus on just one issue of legality, what about insisting that child labor laws are obeyed? I know you could question this on the basis of one person is pro-hunting, another is…
Kiva does not state interest rates. You are viewing portfolio yields, which are not interest rates and consistently underestimate the actual rates. For a post specifically discussing this topic with 10 examples using…