Well, it's been a year since I updated my stats, so here's where I stand as of Jan 2020:
Started in Dec 2015.
Amount Lent: $18,900
Amount Defaulted: $22.97
Amount of Currency Rate Loss: $0.41 (unchanged from last year)
Total losses: $23.38
$23.38 / $18,900 = 0.001237 or 0.124%. (Note that this is lower than last year)
US inflation for the same time period was 9%.
So, I've made 690 loans, got the chance to help out at least that many people, and earned ~66k UR points for $23.38. Still not as great of a return as the prior year, but still a good deal in my book.
Defaulted loans: 4 total.
1) $25. Total loan was $8050 in Rwanda. Debtor paid back $22.95, thus $2.05 loss. I'm not upset about this one.
2) $50. Total loan was $500, in the Philippines. Debtor paid back $37.08, thus $12.92 loss. Annoyed by this, but still they paid back 74% of the loan, so I can't be too upset.
3) $25. Total loan was $900, in Ghana. Debtor paid back $23.25, thus a loss of $1.75. Not upset at this.
4) $25. Total loan was for $$1,000, in Lebanon. Debtor paid back $18.68, thus a loss of $6.32. Biggest 'loss' I've had so far on a loan. Still works out to 74% paid back.
I post this info, not to toot my own horn, but rather for others to see what it's like to make loans on Kiva. I will say that my stats are substantially more favorable than the total Kiva users. For example, I only had 0.122% losses due to default, whereas the total Kiva users have 1.76%. My currency rate loss works out to 0.000022%, whereas the total Kiva users have 0.32%. You better believe that the Default % of Kiva Partners is one of the first things I look at.