1 - 3 weeks for repaid funds withdrawal ??

[Guest]

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[jenskar]

I've been with Kiva a long time and have relent and added to the funds in rotation here over and over.  Have never withdrawn a dime.  Tonight, a charity I really believe in made an appeal and I decided it was time to take some of the funds here out (had a bit of a balance i had not relent yet) and pass them on to that charity.  It's a small charity, I know the need is immediate, and time actually matters. 
I was amazed to see that it will take 1 - 3 weeks to credit my paypal account.  Why?
In a time of instant fund transfer, if my dollars have truly been repaid and are available to be relent internally to other Kiva affiliated MFI's and entrepreneurs, I shouldn't have to wait longer than a business day to get those dollars back. 
Kiva is a great idea -- and we know, via one of the fellows who started akun.org that the entrepreneurs exist, get our dollars, and use them for the reasons we lent them.  But this bothered me enough to post about it -- so sad really, that everything that starts well and small often becomes a bit mired in issues as it grows, and amazing I guess, that Kiva has remained as true to its purpose as it has.  I'm just disappointed.

[YowieFreak]

Unfortunately, the withdrawals are still done as a manual process.  (Partly for security, partly because they haven't had the resources to safely automate the process yet.)

I think the latest is that they try to do withdrawals every day or two (except for the time when Gerard was on holidays ) so it will possibly be processed in a couple of days rather than a couple of weeks.

[saabnet]

I think the latest is that they try to do withdrawals every day or two (except for the time when Gerard was on holidays ) so it will possibly be processed in a couple of days rather than a couple of weeks.

It's not every day or two. I've been waiting since the 17th for a small withdrawal.

-Scott

[wthepoo]

Unfortunately, the withdrawals are still done as a manual process. 

Here's an oldish explanation of what happens and why it happens by Gerard (KivaCS) - as far as I know, nothing has changed:

http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,1261.msg40156.html#msg40156

Frequency still seems to be about once a week.

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[TheTatiana]

My last two withdrawals have been processed within a day, leading me to hope they had an automatic script or something that was run nightly.  Alas, I guess not.  If you've been waiting since the 17th I would email contactus@kiva.org and ask about it.  I did one withdrawal on the 16th that was handled right away, then another since then that I also got immediately.  Something has changed for the better about this lately.

[saabnet]

It's not every day or two. I've been waiting since the 17th for a small withdrawal.

-Scott

My error. I went through my PayPal account history and found my withdrawal indeed was credited to me on the 17th. I just never received the typical confirmation email that I'm used to getting which I think is a PayPal error, not Kiva's fault.

All is well,

-Scott

[Dottie b]

I requested withdrawal of several hundred dollars June 17. I got a confirmation from Kiva, but am still waiting for it to show up on PayPal. On June 22, I added $1.50 to Kiva and immediately withdrew it. It showed up on PayPal immediately, but the big amount isn't there yet. (The $1.50 was so I can cover the service charge and keep my actual withdrawal of funds in round numbers.)

Dottie b

[wthepoo]

A German lender reports that they had asked for a withdrawal but were then requested to confirm it with Kiva by phone for security reasons. 

Has this happened before? It's new to me and didn't happen with my two "test" withdrawals.

Best wishes,
Wolfgang.

[jenskar]

Service charge?  This is for none US funds right ?  (tho I'm not sure that makes it right, either)
Paypal does not charge the receiver of funds which constitute a refund, which is what a repaid loan would actually be.  They even refund the fee paid by the original recipient the fee they paid.  ie. buy something on Ebay, seller pays the fee when they receive the funds, not the buyer (loaner).  Refund money to a buyer -- that buyer pays no fees, and the seller receives the fees originally charged to them back.
If Kiva pays no fees to receive our funds, we certainly shouldn't be paying fees to get them back -- that isn't Paypal being good to Kiva, that is Paypal deferring Kiva's responsibility to the people who make the loans.
If this is in the TOS somewhere I for one am tired of companies sending out emails with huge fine print TOS changes -- something this elemental should be in bold print on the first page of the site or stated clearly when you click a LEND button, so people know if they ever want their loan dollars back, they're going to pay Kiva's "waived" Paypal fees.   

[Robert]

There is no fee involved with withdrawing money to our Paypal account. I have never withdrawn anything, but I read that Gerard explained here that there are no fees:

... That mass payment feature that I previously mentioned is also fee-free, which allows us to complete your withdrawal request without paying a fee. ...

Several KivaFriends have withdrawn money into their PayPal account and confirmed that they weren't charged any fees.

Our fees start only when we transfer the amount to our bank account, especially when amounts are below some threshold or when a currency conversion is involved, as PayPal has probably the worst available rates on the market. While PayPal offers free transfers from our account to Kiva's account and back, it earns money with its so-called fee-free association with Kiva.

Robert