dryrunguy wrote: ↑Wed Jan 26, 2022 4:28 pmWell, FYI, another major change that Kiva made in the past year or so was how it dealt with inactive accounts. At one point, Kiva had about $20 million just sitting in inactive accounts--doing nothing. So it sent out a massive number of emails to users with inactive accounts and informed them that the funds in their accounts would be autolended on their behalf unless they opted out (by turning off autolending in their settings). So if you didn't have autolending turned off, then your funds have been re-lended as repayments come in. So you may want to look into that and see where your account stands.mmmm8 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:45 am That's too bad... I've been been lending (small amounts) on the site ever since you turned us onto it years ago but, admittedly, have been complacent about tracking the organization and haven't paid much attention to the details.
Is there an alternative microlending service you'd recommend?
I actually supported that move for two reasons. One, it was a massive amount of money just sitting in accounts. Two, since Kiva did that, very few loans have failed to raise the amount requested. A few years ago, thousands of loans were expiring each month because they failed to raise the full amount. That doesn't happen anymore.
But even that move had a major downside. Each time Kiva makes a loan via autolending using inactive accounts, it gives itself a 15% donation. THAT's sketchy. And it's not sustainable.
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As for alternatives, if you don't care about interacting with other lenders, www.lendwithcare.org is good. It's hard to find field partner repayment info, and I don't think they do a particularly good job of keeping that info up-to-date. The site is a little clunky. And since it is based in the UK, they operate in British pounds--not U.S. dollars. But is a good organization and a subset of CARE International, which seems to have an excellent reputation.
Thank you! Re: auto-lending, they actually sent those emails to everyone, I think. I'm an active user and I still get them threatening to auto-lend - I like to pick my own loans and opt to give to the loan vs the donation, so I just log in every time I get one.
Will check out www.lendwithcare.org!