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Comment by DateK | Hacker News Reader

I'm using kiva.org and have deposited $9,000 over couple of years. With auto-relend option my account circulated currently $58,325 through 2,268 loans (individuals or groups) in 61 countries.

http://www.kiva.org/lender/kizaemon

For auto-relend I chose all countries except US, both genders. The sectors are Agriculture, Clothing, Education, Food, Health, Manufacturing, Retail. Have not chosen sectors Arts, Construction, Entertainment, Housing, Personal Use, Services, Transportation, Wholesale, as I do not feel these are basic enough.

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FYI, kiva is a scam (in as much as the company is incompetent) that primarily props up predatory lenders in other countries

Evidence: Just look at the portfolio yield of many of kiva's lenders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiva_(organization)#Current_int...

If you're making more than a percent or two interest in what you believe is warm-fuzzy charitable lending, you're simply deluded. Almost all of these enjoy double digit interest rate yields... that's after losses for defaults. Most are around 30% some over 80%. It is very obviously a morally bankrupt practice which has managed to clothe itself as a charity.

I'm not disagreeing with you, and recall reading elsewhere about Kiva's deceptive practices, but could you back up that claim with some evidence, or at least a more detailed explanation?

Great. Now here's the question. What's better, having loans available at high interest, or having no loans available at all?

I'll go with the former.

It's not clear that the presence or absence of kiva affects the calculus at all.

This is why I've stopped believing in giving to on-the-door charity pleas, or give-some-money-to-X-before-you-check-your-goods-out-at-the-checkout. It seems much better to properly research one or a handful of organizations and give to those, than to give to organizations you have hardly heard of because of the immediate social pressure.

Previous HN discussion on the matter

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7214353

I used to donate through Kiva until I discovered that the whole "directing" story was just marketing. That doesn't make Kiva evil, but it does remove much of the feel-good motivation of supporting a named project.

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