Kiva ... is it a scam ?

A friend of mine invited me to join Kiva

It is a site that enables people to give money which is loaned to entreprenuers in third world countries.

My friend said he joined because it made him feel good that he was helping these people to help themselves.

Ok I thought so I had a look at the website.

Now the site tells us that they have the support of many big corporations like microsoft, google, paypal, starbucks, etc, etc etc

These companies have donated millions of dollars and given free services such as advertising, free transaction fees, legal costs, and other freebies amounting to a lot of stuff.

The site gives the impression that if you give say $100 as a loan to the third world person, then that person will recieve $100 dollars.

This is true, but what is not altogether clear is that Kiva then charge interest on the loan to the third world person, and that interest is in the order of 30 - 40%

Personally I think that is unacceptable, but diehard users of the site claim that these charges are fair and are required to make the whole thing work.

I'm interested to know what ATS'rs think.

I think it's a scam. Kiva want me to hand over money to them to help third world people. They then take the money and lend it at high interest, plus they have millions coming in from big corps.







[edit on 1-4-2010 by bigyin]

April fools ?

In all honesty you would have to be mental to give any money to these clowns.

Take care.

Regards
Lee



[edit on 1-4-2010 by h3akalee]

reply to post by bigyin


Seems to me that one cannot free a people by introducing them to usury.
I work at Whole Foods Market and used to donate to their Whole Planet Foundation until I thought this through. Whole Planet uses Grameen Trust, (among others banking institutions, I think) to deliver the masses unto the Pharisees.

reply to post by bigyin


This statement from the Kiva website rings alarm bells -

We are entrepreneurs (affiliate marketers) who make money by helping others do the same.

This terminology (almost to the letter) is almost always indicative of a network marketing/MLM Pyramid scam.

Check out companies like Amway Usana Monavie etc they all use the same language - Entrepreneur /Affiliates/ Business Owners allegedly helping other people make money "Normally this means helping themselves" riding on the back of one charitable cause or another

Stay well well away , if something sounds to good to be true then it normally is.

reply to post by bigyin


Yes I thought I could smell something familiar this was only after a couple of minutes rooting around, the truth is hidden deep by the looks -

The microfinance loan companies partnered with Kiva have loaned an average of $55 million dollars, at an average of 23% interest, with an average default rate of 2.85%. That's an average PROFIT of almost $11 million dollars. Microfinance lending is a GOOD thing, and a worthy cause for your donations.

I even applaud these companies, because they are helping people and have found a way to make money while doing good work. But they are NOT charities. I don't see why a company that has made $11 million dollars -- off of poor people! -- needs more free money from me. Would you donate food to Feed the Children, if they were selling it to starving kids at a 23% markup? With a 23% ROI, these companies can afford to put everything on Visa and still make a profit!

I don't think the Kiva website makes this clear enough, and I don't think these companies deserve free use of your money. If you want to donate to microfinance, go to one of the groups that don't do it for profit, like the Rotary micro*

www.scam.com...

So basically- you DONATE money, which is then LOANED to people at 30-40% Interest???

That makes Mafia loansharks look like saints!! Unbelievable. Obviously, charity doesn't start at home any more, it now starts in a banker's pocket.

I remember watching a program on I think Discovery chan about an organization that lends money to people in third world countries. The one thing that stuck in my mind is that the whole time they have been in operation not a single person that received a loan has defaulted on it.

After looking through the website I am pretty sure this is the organization that was featured on the program.
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[edit on 1-4-2010 by Phlegmi]

Originally posted by wylekat
So basically- you DONATE money, which is then LOANED to people at 30-40% Interest???

That makes Mafia loansharks look like saints!! Unbelievable. Obviously, charity doesn't start at home any more, it now starts in a banker's pocket.

I was kind of thinking that myself.

You know I would gladly give to help people with ideas to improve things, but I'm not happy about conn men in the middle.

On the site one of the claims they make to justify these charges is that loan sharks charge 20% a week so their 40% a year is ok