Risk-Based Searching-currency exchange,non-payment,partner rating,delinquency...

[Guest]

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[fnord]

Thanks Paul, you gave me a useful hint about what was wrong. I guess part of the loan info was cached somewhere (I don't have a Kivabank account, and I had shut down that computer many times). I usually show active loans only, but going to the full view then back to active only did the trick. So I guess that since those two loans were no longer active, the "active only" view didn't get updates about these, and didn't invalidate the already stored records (I won't guess about whether that's a bug or a feature, being a developer myself I stopped believing there's an objective difference)

I can see the partner tab now -- at least when I remember to maximize the browser -- but I wonder what else I'm missing. Is there a way to tell firefox that a silverlight app is using more display acreage than is displayed in the browser's window, hence triggering the scrollbar's appearance?

fred

[nuclearspike]

I have found that there is an issue with it sometimes not updating loan statuses when doing Active Only. If you uncheck it and run it, then after you recheck and run it will have been corrected.

As a note to all: I'm going to be moving this next week so I won't be very connected to the internet for a little while. I'm taking a very long way to get to San Francisco, stopping to visit my siblings then go camping in NV for a week. Hopefully nothing too bad happens to KB while I'm away. My computer won't arrive in SF until Sept 8th.

[RayH]

I use the nuclearspike / kivabank website to choose which loans I fund (THANKS!)

I'm fairly principled about why I lend via this route, and on my particular terms it has to be a proper loan with a proper risk/reward ratio for both the creditor and debtor.

I haven't been on the site for a couple of months as I've been traveling in Southern Africa (doing my bit to support the economy simply by buying local goods and services wherever possible.)

I have to say at the moment that there seem to be very very few safe loans to fund.
If this continues I shall be shipping some of my credit back to my own account.

Has anyone else noticed a general downward shift in credit ratings and increase in risk, or is this just a short term blip?

[cpbailey]

I think the lower risk loans move faster off the site, especially if they have other favorable factors (short term, 4-5 stars, low delinquency, cool business type/less common country).  Try just after midnight on the first as there is usually a surge of 1,000 or so new loans.  This is only 11 hours away!!!!

Happy hunting,

Colette
Poverty 2 Prosperity

[RayH]

I think the lower risk loans move faster off the site, especially if they have other favorable factors (short term, 4-5 stars, low delinquency, cool business type/less common country).  Try just after midnight on the first as there is usually a surge of 1,000 or so new loans.  This is only 11 hours away!!!!

Happy hunting,

Colette
Poverty 2 Prosperity

OK Thanks for the tip. i'll give it a go. As far as I'm concerned it's a good thing that lower risk loans get funded faster BTW it's only 1 1/2 hours to midnight here, so i guess it's midnight PST = west coast time.

[cpbailey]

Yep, it is all about Kiva time, and Kiva is based in California.  The new monthly allotments become available on Kiva's 1st of the month.  I suspect you will be tempted--once or twice.   

Colette

[RayH]

Yep, it is all about Kiva time, and Kiva is based in California.  The new monthly allotments become available on Kiva's 1st of the month.  I suspect you will be tempted--once or twice.   

Colette

Thanks for the tip. I found 9 loans (which I've funded) that matched my search criteria and which didn't concentrate too much into too few MFI's, but I still have a fair bit of Kiva credit left. I'm not going to lower my standards though, because I think I'd regret that, so I guess this credit will just have to wait on the sidelines for suitable loans.

[cpbailey]

Ray,

New loans are added all the time.  The loans you tend to want will move quickly, especially after the big repayment day on the 15th. 

Good luck, and keep hunting!

Colette

[Dagfinn]

Just a comment to your requirement about "a proper loan with a proper risk/reward ratio" and your concern there are "very very few safe loans".

Overall I find Kiva to be exemplary in this, for my part I have lost 0,41% here on Kiva but 67,51% on MyC4 and most of my funds is into riskbased currency loans which have had no negative effect to me.

Personally I would love it if a greater risk was available as if the case is to reach deep into the working poor by its very nature safe is not high on a conventional check list though my main point is it very safe indeed if you measure need and gratitude for being given a better life - if merely for a short time.


Be well, Dagfinn A

[RayH]

Just a comment to your requirement about "a proper loan with a proper risk/reward ratio" and your concern there are "very very few safe loans".

Overall I find Kiva to be exemplary in this, for my part I have lost 0,41% here on Kiva but 67,51% on MyC4 and most of my funds is into riskbased currency loans which have had no negative effect to me.

Personally I would love it if a greater risk was available as if the case is to reach deep into the working poor by its very nature safe is not high on a conventional check list though my main point is it very safe indeed if you measure need and gratitude for being given a better life - if merely for a short time.


Be well, Dagfinn A

Everyone has their own risk / reward ratio, which is why tools like kivabank are so necessary, and so great.

As you say, you have different criteria to me.

offtopic:
Just to clarify what I think (I'm not trying to convince anyone else I'm right.) In my book, an unsecured, interest free loan, to a MFI that I've never met is already demonstrating a very large leap of faith. That the MFI is then lending this money further and earning money on their credit portfolio is not something that concerns me a lot. In fact, in the long term, I see it as ideal if the MFI transforms itself and its customer base to become a credit institution that lends to people in a responsible way at the lowest interest rates possible, just like we have in the West. I want to avoid cases where I'm carrying all the downside and the MFI collects all of the upside, not least because that could encourage reckless lending and stifle other more appropriate initiatives. This is why I choose for "safe" loans. My definition of safe is that the MFI is very likely to pay me my money back at some point ("return of capital" rather than "return on capital"). It's still likely to be the cheapest form of finance an MFI will ever receive (assuming that the admin overhead is worth their effort. If it isn't then they should simply look for funding elsewhere.) I justify this because I believe that making bad loans helps no-one at all (look at Iceland, Ireland, the US housing crisis ... the World credit crisis.) I can also keep my money on deposit in the Rabobank, which is one of the top 10 safest banks in the World, grew out of a farmer-owned micro finance cooperative, has massive community projects in the developing World, and is also one of the most ethical today. In the end, I'd like everyone in every country to have the option of choosing to bank at a Rabobank or not. But I guess it all comes down to your view of what Kiva is and isn't, which has been discussed at length elsewhere.