I found Kiva through the link in JDiver's signature, but didn't find the Flyertalk team until today. After credits come in on the 15th, I'll be sure to credit a new loan to the FT team!
Wow, that would be something! And I know we could do it - it's a matter of educating other FlyerTalkers of the wonderful opportunity FT and Kiva allow us to spread the good around where we travel. Now - imagine every FTer did what the 57 members have done - the average loans per FT member is 3.75 loans!
"We want to fight global poverty while earning miles" at work.
Today we are at 57 members, $6,300.00 lent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boulderlaw
We surpassed our goal of $5,000. Congratulations to all who have lent through the FT team and contributed to meeting our goal!
How about we add a few zeros to that number? Here is a global challenge for all of FlyerTalk:
If every member of FlyerTalk.com (all 197,793 members) makes at least one $25 loan on their credit card of choice through our Kiva lending team we can generate:
$4,944,825 in loans
$98,896.50 in cashback rebates (@ 2%) or
at least 4,944,825 frequent flyers miles
Right now the biggest team on Kiva has loaned a measly $500,000.
The people on this thread are off to a great start, but this concept needs to spread to every member of the FT community. Everyone on FT could use 25 miles or a little cashback, so what is stopping FT from dominating the Kiva leaderboard? As our team motto says, "We want to fight global poverty while earning miles." Let's get earning.
__________________ Lend a hand up with Kiva; far more than a hand out.
Just made my 8th loan. It's so easy to re-loan and it's amazingly great to see every single person I've loaned to paying back, just so that I can pay it forward again to someone else!
I made a loan. I had checked out Prosper a while ago, but it kinda just seemed like either the person wouldn't pay it back, or you wouldn't earn much interest.
With Kiva I feel more like I'm helping someone who really needs it. I donated $25 to some lady who needs money for ear piercing machines.
How is everyone doing with currency fluctuations? The one I chose said I was guaranteed my $25 back, but other loans made it sound like if the exchange rate changes that I may not get my $25 back (which would just add a little hurdle to loaning out the next $25 but not stop it).
How is everyone doing with currency fluctuations? The one I chose said I was guaranteed my $25 back, but other loans made it sound like if the exchange rate changes that I may not get my $25 back (which would just add a little hurdle to loaning out the next $25 but not stop it).
I've just made it kind of a personal goal that I log in once a month or so, and if I have credit from a repaid loan, I go ahead and lend it to someone else. Even if I have to add $10 or $15. I'm up to 9 loans now. Everyone is paying back, even 2 are ahead of schedule by paying more than what they were obligated to pay.
As for currency fluctuations, I mean, we're talking $25 loans here, not $25000 loans. The dollar just doesn't fluctuate wildly against worldwide currencies during the short term of these loans. At the maximum, the $ could increase by 10% over one year's time. So, you've lost $2.50. That's less than the cost of 1 latte at Starbucks. What you gained in good karma, decent humanity, and self-respect is certainly more valuable than $2.50.
I've pretty much got the same approach as TravellinHusker. I log in every month or so, and reloan the amount that has been repaid. I've got $200 in the system, with 12 active loans right now. In total, I've made 27 loans, 15 of which were repaid in full and on time (7 loans have counted since I joined the FT team).
I would not worry too much about currency fluctuations. Yes, some country could face tremendous devaluation over time, but the loans having short terms, it typically won't show. And if it does, I'll just add the difference. I'm doing this to help others, not to protect "my investment".
Cheers,
GenevaFlyer
__________________ Help Flyertalk change the world: Join the FT Kivateam!
