Kiva Lending Page: Sort By Repayment Term

[Guest]

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[fredr1c]

Kiva's Roma Jhaveri reports that in the next few days, Kiva will be rolling out some changes to the way we search for and make loans:

One change will be the ability to make "blended payments" -- payments made up of both PayPal monies and Kiva Credit, together.

Another change that some of us here have expressed an interest in is the ability to sort loans on the lending page by repayment term!

Read about these and other upcoming changes to the Kiva.org interface here:

http://kivanews.blogspot.com/2008/05/blended-payments-at-last.html

...and see this related thread in the Suggestion Box section of Kivafriends here:

Sort by Repayment Term

Fred

[Paula-from-NZ]

I'm really thrilled that the repayment term is going to be a sort option.

I'm a little unclear about the blended payments but I'm guessing that will become clear....

[cpbailey]

Paula,

If I have a loan that the borrower pays $20 back and then defaults, then I can add $5 when the $20 is repaid to me.  I would then have a whole loan.  Alternatively, if I get $25 back, I can add a donation without a totally separate transaction.  Just pay the difference!

Colette

[Paula-from-NZ]

Oh that makes sense - I haven't had that happen to me yet so didn't even consider that.  Thanks! 

[Diane R]

Another scenario where "blended payments" will be helpful:

I put $75 worth of loans in my basket this weekend, and had $50 in KivaCredit, but because "blended payments" was not an option, I had to pay for the entire $75 basket using Paypal, even though I had part of that amount in KivaCredit.  With the new system, presumably I'd be able to select to first use up my KivaCredit and then only have it send me to Paypal for the remaining $25.

I am very much looking forward to this new improvement! 

Good move, Kiva team!

--Diane.

[cpbailey]

Paula,

I expect it to happen, and I was already doing this  .  Can you say WEEC?

Colette

[dh]

Another advantage of blended payments:

Although grants currently fund much of Kiva's expansion, Kiva depends on that 10% donation for ongoing operating expenses. As Kiva grows, a greater percentage of loans will be reloans. Previously, there was no way to donate $2.50 when reloaning your single $25 credit. Soon there will be.

[redstarr]

Yippie!!!!   Sorting by length!

[KivanSteven]

I enjoy short term loans like the rest, but Im worried what that might do to some longer term loans, especially long term group loans of a few thousand dollars, or the 12-18 month loans to less popular regions.  Im sure they will still find funding, but they may be hung up in the selection for even longer than we have thus far seen.

Also if a huge short term loaning trend develops, it might put undue pressure on MFIs and entrepreneurs to make their loans more attractive simply by shortening them in ways that are not always beneficial to and most productive for the entrepreneur.

When it comes to new members, the best way to test Kiva out is to find the shortest loan possible in order to minimize re-payment time to see if it all really works--it just seems as if new and old members alike will be more inclined then maybe they should be to seek out the shortest loan terms possible...regardless of write up quality, picture, loan type, etc--all the things we have come to cherish about loaning.  There definitely are an enormous multitude of short term loans, but Id hate to see any of these attributes of the short term loans suffer simply because they can and/or will find funding almost immediately.

Im neutral on the new sort feature--I want to see how it plays out--probably wont be much to realize, but I guess Im looking at the loans individually rather than the success of it all as a whole.  When it comes down to it, they all get funded, and I guess thats what we need to keep in mind as well.  Any changes made to loaning customs are not all that bad until loans teeter on the brink of being rejected.

[fredr1c]

Sort by repayment term is "live"....maybe the other changes are, too.

---
(a few minutes later)

One of the other changes Roma talked about is definitely done -- the increased information about Kiva in the checkout process, when you're invited to make a default donation (10% of the amount in your basket at checkout time, easily changeable).

http://kivanews.blogspot.com/2008/05/blended-payments-at-last.html

I don't have the ability to make a blended payment - no Kiva credit at this time.   It's possible that this change is done as well -- someone who's in a position to make a blended payment can chime in, too. :-)

Fred