So I got a credit on one of my Kiva accounts, due to the RAFODE refunds. Just to see how the withdraw process works, I clicked on that instead of lending it back out again as usual. It went well but I got a couple interesting prompts.
One said that it costs Kiva to process the translation and then asked for a 5% donation to help cover the cost, if I remember correctly (wish I got a screen shot).
Is PayPal charging Kiva to put money back? Or is that something leftover from the days when PayPal actually
did skim their % off the top of Kiva transactions.
After that was the natural
"Are you sure you want to do this?" prompts followed by the confirmation page saying
"Thanks. Your withdrawal request will be processed in 1-3 weeks." I guess it's safe to assume that Kiva is processing these requests manually? 1-3
weeks is interesting.
Something else I found interesting was the page that asked for the PayPal e-mail address. Does any PayPal e-mail address really mean
any e-mail address? So if I wanted to withdraw and send it to someone else, would entering their e-mail address instead of mine send my converted Kiva credit to their PayPal account? Or does Kiva compare the e-mail address on the account to the one the withdraw request is going to as part of this 1-3 week process? I'll probably find that out soon since I've got a different Kiva login e-mail address than the PayPal address I entered on the form.
Nonetheless, aside from that it looks like it works pretty smoothly and, unless entering that different PayPal e-mail address snags me, I trust that $25 will be in my PayPal account soon. I also got a friendly conformation e-mail that basically said
"We hope your experience loaning money to poor entrepreneurs has been positive. Don't hesitate to give us any feedback". One thing about that e-mail, I'd strongly suggest putting the PayPal withdraw e-mail address entered on the form in there as extra confirmation/piece of mind. That would be extra backup in case someone accidentally entered the wrong address. It can be caught and brought to Kiva's attention right away.
I know some people here were wondering about the withdraw process a few weeks back, so there you go. This is something to keep in mind, especially for you power lenders that have hundreds and thousands of dollars in the Kiva system and are probably getting/will be getting Kiva Credit left and right. If you want to withdraw because maybe you don't want to use the service anymore, want to scale down your use, are in a pinch financially, etc, your return is not going to be instant.
Now excuse me while I wait 1-3 weeks for that $25 to reach my PayPal account so I can put it back into the system after about 2 minutes of finding someone else to invest in.
