Ever heard the wonky joke about the economist and the $20 bill?
On the way to work today, and a bit groggy since we’re all working like nuts on the launch, I came across the veritable $20-bill-on-the-sidewalk.(Well, $10 anyway).
That’s gotta be a great omen, as we are in the middle of launching a new [...]
Entries from November 2007 ↓
A Good Omen, If There Ever Was One
November 30th, 2007 — Fun from wade @ Zopa Blog USA
Late Group Loans Update
November 30th, 2007 — Prosper P2P-Loans.com Update from P2P-Loans.com @ P2P-Loans.com
It is with great sadness that I have to report two P2P-Loans.com loans that are now over 1 month late (soon to be 2 months late). In fact, one of these loans, after making her first 4 payments on time, recently filed for bancruptcy. This loan going l…
Related StoresNetBanker at Prosper Days 2008
November 30th, 2007 — Prosper Days 2008, Prosper.com from RateLadder @ Rate Ladder
I was recently reading NetBanker and I came across an post where he says he will be at Prosper Days 2008 as a panelist of bloggers covering the space.
After find that tidbit I read the rest of the rest of the article. Lo and behold a picture of RateLadder is on the NetBanker Blog. How cool is that?
I [...]
Subprime Meltdown Heatmap
November 30th, 2007 — Statistics, risk factor from Mike @ Prosperous Land
I keep watching the housing market and sub-prime mess because it’s an indicator of states that will be distressed and have higher odds default for loan issued to homeowners in those markets (and folks employed in home-related industries). If you’re not…
Related StoresStaying on Track When You Work at Home
November 30th, 2007 — Productivity from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money
It has now been a month and a half since I resigned from my job. Last Friday, I stopped to think, what I have accomplished with all this time? I can sum it up in just a two words: “not much.” This may surprise some of my regular readers who have realized [...]
Related StoresMoney Marathon: Personal Finance is a Marathon
November 30th, 2007 — Financial Education, Lending Club, Series, competing, defining, marathon, race, rough, tough, training, wins from Andre Nosalsky @ Better Rates. Together.
Recently I was planning my training schedule for a big race that is coming up in six months, and it occurred to me that personal finance is similar to a marathon race. We at Lending Club believe that there are many money lessons that can be learned from a marathon. I have put together some [...]
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Continue reading → Money Marathon: Personal Finance is a Marathon
Technology Behind Prosper’s New Forums
November 30th, 2007 — forums from Mike @ Prosperous Land
112233 over on prospers.org forums has noticed that the new Prosper forums are using Community Server 2007 as the technology base for the forums. I suspect that the moderation features were part of the considerations.
Moderation Capabilities Featur…
Related StoresZopa Guarantees Returns 5.1%
November 30th, 2007 — Zopa from RateLadder @ Rate Ladder
But the yield is only 5.1%. Essentially you are buying a 1 year CD in the credit union of Zopa. Details can be found in the this Wall Street Journal article.
FDIC insured guaranteed rate of return. Yield capped at 5.1%
Seems just like a credit union. I will be glad to have competition in the p2p lending space. It [...]
Virtual Piggy Banks
November 30th, 2007 — Financial Education, Lending Club, allowance, allowances, children, chores, conversations, kids, piggy, virtual from Mike Smith @ Better Rates. Together.
The number of financial products geared towards children continues to grow. Starting children’s introduction to money and finance as early as possible will help them to learn about a subject that generally isn’t covered in schools. Many new product offerings take time-honored traditions like chores, allowance, and the piggy bank and move them online.
One such [...]
What a nice surprise
November 30th, 2007 — Late loans, Lenders and lending from zcommodore @ Posts from all blogs
Most mornings, especially when I’m expecting to receive payments in my account as I was this morning, I check my Prosper account. This morning while I was checking my account, I noticed the amount of payments pending in my account had jumped significantly so I went to investigate. I expected one of my current loans must be making an extra large payment or something to that effect. However, to my surprise, no less than 4 of my 11 loans in various stages of lateness had initiated manual payments.Of the loans making payments, one of them who happens to be in my group had passed 1-month late earlier this week and is listed as in “Bankruptcy”. I’m guessing that if this is really a bankruptcy case, it’s a Ch. 13 since she had been involved in a Ch. 7 only a few years ago. I had hoped this one would recover but since she hasn’t responded to any of my inquiries I figured it was a lost cause. That one will certainly make me happy if it gets caught up.Another of the ones catching up is one that went late on his first payment and is officially “Late”. Previously he had had two payments pending but they both failed. I had contacted him asking why there were two and he said there was a mistake made where Prosper initiated an automatic attempt and he made a manual payment about the same time. Hopefully this one will go through and everything will be fine after this. Yes, I know. I’m just too much of an optimist for my own good.The other two that are catching up are both <15. One just caught up from over 1-month late earlier this week and appears to be catching up the rest of the way. The other has been late at least as often as she’s been on time so seeing her catch up is not really a surprise but still nice to see.I’m still frustrated with how the official forums on Prosper are being run but it’s nice to see something positive to talk about as well.
Related StoresMore Time for P2P Lending Advice
November 30th, 2007 — P2P Lending from Personal Loan Portfolio @ Personal Loan Portfolio
Some guests stopped by my house tonight so I have not had time to compile all the great advice that I have received so far based on my request for P2P lending advice. Plus, my funds still have not arrived to Lending Club so I have not been able …
Zopa’s US Launch Imminent
November 29th, 2007 — Zopa from RateLadder @ Rate Ladder
Received directly from Zopa via email:
Well, we told you we were coming! At this very minute, we are testing the service and expect to bring it to everybody within a few days. More below!
In this U.S. update:
Launch Update: Sneak Preview
Borrowers Needed, Now
Team Spotlight: Luke Terlaak Poot, Comic Theorist
Zopa In the News
What we will be launching [...]
Kiva.org Prediction…
November 29th, 2007 — Kiva from Jeff & Heather @ My Microfinance
I’m going to put my prediction for the final loan-tally at Kiva.org for 2007 up here… $17.3 million by the end of the year! Kiva.org has been absolutely HOT with its growth since around April 2007. If you haven’t checked out Kiva.org, do so! P2P at its finest on a global level! Low point of [...]
Related StoresBlog closed…
November 29th, 2007 — News from Jeff & Heather @ The FANAFI Foundation
Okay, I’ve decided that the FANAFI Foundation blog is best served ‘closed’ as the newer blog, MyMicrofinance, covers all the same topics (maybe not as vividly as here, but I’ll change that in time). So hop over to the other blog!
I’m toying with the formats over here for possible transition and use within the MyMicrofinance [...]
Zzzzz… Zopa.com
November 29th, 2007 — Editorial, Update, Zopa from Jeff & Heather @ My Microfinance
Have you ever been promised something, then that day comes and you don’t get exactly what you were told you were getting (kind of like Christmas morning)? Well, that is how I feel about Zopa.com. I remember hearing and cheering this idea on back in the Fall of 2006… Hmmm, quick check of the calendar [...]
Related StoresNext week and the coming P2P over-saturation!
November 29th, 2007 — Update from Jeff & Heather @ The FANAFI Foundation
Zopa.com is going live next week… That deafening silence is me clapping. Zopa is too little, too late to the P2P ballgame with it’s platform. It will work for some, but it’s definitely not an everyday, everybody system as you have to sign up to use it (per their press release) with one of their [...]
Related StoresContinue reading → Next week and the coming P2P over-saturation!
Prosper’s Finovate Presentation Video Available
November 29th, 2007 — Prosper, Prosper upgrade, press release from Mike @ Prosperous Land
Remember those new features that Prosper unveiled at the Finvoate but didn’t want to talk about? Well, the Finovate folks have finally published the video. Almost everything talked about has already been implemented (except the custom portfolios), so i…
Related StoresContinue reading → Prosper’s Finovate Presentation Video Available
Videos on YouTube
November 29th, 2007 — Maren Misner, microfinance, microfinanzas PRISMA, peru from marenmisner @ Kiva Blogs from the Field
Hello! Over the past month I have been experimenting with the video feature on my camera to add to the depth of the journals. If you’re interested in watching any of these videos (be warned, the quality is not the best!), you can go to youtube.com and search for Kiva Peru. I believe at the [...]
Related StoresIs Software Development Slowly Killing Me?
November 29th, 2007 — career from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money
When I was 8 years old, my parents bought the family an IBM PCjr. It was a great computer and one that I’ll always remember fondly. My brother showed me how to get to the BASIC interpreter and my parents bought programming books. And boy did I program. You name it, [...]
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Publications Software Building Hardware Home Improvement
Continue reading → Is Software Development Slowly Killing Me?
NES: The Best Investment My Parents Ever Made
November 29th, 2007 — Financial Education, Lending Club, brothers, bull, classics, diversion, hours, memories, nintendo, playing from DebtKid @ Better Rates. Together.
When most people think of investments, they think of stocks, bonds, and maybe those gold coins your grandpa gave you when you turned 18. I like a broader definition of an investment that includes not only financial vehicles, but timesavings and relationships as well.
In those terms, the best investment decision my parents ever made [...]
Continue reading → NES: The Best Investment My Parents Ever Made
A p2p lending account as Christmas gift
November 29th, 2007 — Marketing, MyC4 from wiseclerk @ P2P-Banking.com
MyC4 users can now easily give someone a MyC4 account as Christmas gift. With a 6 step process the user creates an account, transfers money and prints a christmas voucher.The recipient is all set to start investing in loans.
Is this a clever viral marketing idea? Post your take on this in the wiseclerk forum!
Zopa Promises to be Different
November 29th, 2007 — P2P Lending from Personal Loan Portfolio @ Personal Loan Portfolio
I recieved my informational email from Zopa announcing that they are in the testing phase. Zopa is promising to be different than the existing Person to Person lending sites such as Prosper.com and Lending Club in some interesting ways:
No risk for investors.
Your funds will be federally insured. No more …
Zopa US launch next week
November 29th, 2007 — US, Zopa from wiseclerk @ P2P-Banking.com
According to the Wall Street Journal p2p lending service Zopa will launch in the US next week. Zopa has been established in the UK since 2005. The long announced US start had been postponed several times due to regulation issues.
In the US Zopa will partner with six credit unions. Lenders will benefit since they can be [...]
Why do I even bother?
November 29th, 2007 — Official Forums from zcommodore @ Posts from all blogs
Every so often, I get “the bug” and go read a few posts in the new forums, usually when I’m logged in to my account for other reasons. Occasionally I try to post. Every time I post I get the message that my post is “pending moderator review” or something to that effect. That is just so lame.In addition, yesterday, on Prospers.org, it came out that any time someone posted a link that mentioned that website, it was changed to Prosper.com. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth by forum participants, apparently this was changed to just edit links to use “***” so they wouldn’t be real links.I don’t know who is behind all this nonsense that is the Prosper forums but they have some serious issues if they think this will become acceptable. People who care are going to care less and less if this keeps up. Prosper is going to need to do some serious PR repair pretty soon if they can’t get their act together. Lenders who are pulling out will have months, if not years, to be constantly reminded of why they don’t like Prosper. They will be telling a lot of friends and family, to say nothing of opportunities to broadcast their displeasure in various places on the internet.Prosper really needs to find a way to reach out to these people and stop this foolishness they’ve embarked upon. Prosper is going to lose if they don’t I firmly believe.
Related StoresMy Take On Prosper’s New Forums
November 29th, 2007 — Prosper upgrade, forums from Mike @ Prosperous Land
Yesterday I mentioned that I don’t like the new Prosper forums but I hesitated to list my reasons. With just a day of mulling, it wasn’t enough time to be thoughtful. After sleeping on it, I do not like it and find that the change is a big step backwar…
Related StoresZopa Launch Imminent
November 29th, 2007 — P2P Lending from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money
Zopa, a peer-to-peer lending company with a long history across the Atlantic, has sent me (and probably countless others) an e-mail saying that they are going live with their service “within a few days.” I haven’t been keeping track, but it’s probably been more than a year since they announced it was coming to [...]
Related StoresGeneral Opinion of New Prosper Forums
November 29th, 2007 — Features, P2P Lending Forums, Prosper.com from RateLadder @ Rate Ladder
I had such high hopes for the new Prosper forums, which is why it makes me a little sad to find myself agreeing with the general sentiment (but not the harsh rhetoric) of both Prosperous Land (Prosper’s New Forums Not So Hot) and zcommodore (new forums basically worthless). As both these links provide the gorey details [...]
Related StoresLaddering for Short-Term Savings
November 29th, 2007 — Financial Education, Lending Club, emergency, implement, ladder, laddering, left, months, reinvest, technique from Mike Smith @ Better Rates. Together.
In my recent post about short-term savings, I talked about creating an emergency fund with three to six months’ worth of savings. A great way to implement that savings plan is to use a laddering technique.
To help explain the laddering technique, let’s look at an example using the most classic implementation: using Certificates of Deposits [...]
Join Zopa - Back Office Operations
November 29th, 2007 — General from Adrian @ Zopa
Zopa is recruiting again.
We are looking for a Back Office staff to join the Operations team in London
Please email adrian@zopa.com if you are interested.
Adrian
********************************
Back Office Operations
Working within the Operations department, you will be required to perform a wide variety of tasks including reconciliation, customer contact, repayment collection, data maintenance and error investigation.
Skills:
Great MS skills especially [...]
Richard Branson: “Go Fund Yourself” with Virgin Money
November 29th, 2007 — P2P Lending from Personal Loan Portfolio @ Personal Loan Portfolio
Richard Branson, the master of promotion, launched Virgin Money in the United States with much fanfare as expected and wearking a “Go Fund Yourself” T-Shirt. CNN honored Sir Richard with a photo gallery, a news article, and a video. As the WSJ recently mentioned, Virgin Money was …
Richard Petty Racing-NASCAR Fan Apparel Souvenirs Sports Collectibles
United States Notes Small Size Notes Paper Money US Coins Paper Money
Continue reading → Richard Branson: “Go Fund Yourself” with Virgin Money
It’s going to be great…
November 28th, 2007 — Update from Jeff & Heather @ The FANAFI Foundation
Well, as some of your already know and see happening, Prosper.com is starting to implode. It first started with a lack of a solid strategy with late loans, then it was in the anti-community forum moderations (banning of people, etc), then with the deceit in the fineprint of their web ads (the return quoted is [...]
Related StoresName The Date Competition Continues
November 28th, 2007 — Prosperous Land, competition from Mike @ Prosperous Land
The “When Will Ads Appear Competition” is running and I’m still taking guesses.
I think it’s likely that Prosper will place ads for some well meaning financial institution along with the Low Estimated Return warning (probably for CDs or high interest s…
Lazy Man Contest Winner Finally Announced
November 28th, 2007 — Contests from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money
If you read the title and were a little confused about when I ran a contest, I don’t blame you. Many months ago I ran a contest. I’ve been waiting until the prizes were given out to announce the winners. I had hoped to include another mention of the book, so that [...]
Related StoresContinue reading → Lazy Man Contest Winner Finally Announced
Prosper’s New Forums Not So Hot
November 28th, 2007 — Prosper upgrade, forums from Mike @ Prosperous Land
Prosper has unveiled their new forums (see zcommodore here and here, or RateLadder here) and they’ve not been well received. It’s very nice that they tied the forum IDs to the Prosper lender/borrower ID. Unfortunately, that’s the best I can say. My ove…
RateLadder Crosses 11K in Prosper Account Value
November 28th, 2007 — Prosper.com, Tools from RateLadder @ Rate Ladder
After reaching the 10K milestone I stopped adding fund to my Prosper account unless the funds were generated in advertising/donations. Today, my account value peaked over the 11K threshold ($11,079.42). I am very happy with my progress to date.
To be sure, I wish I had avoided certain extended credit that I bid on in my 1st [...]
Credit, Charge Cards Trading Cards Collectibles
Happy Bunny Animation Characters Animation Art, Characters Collectibles
Continue reading → RateLadder Crosses 11K in Prosper Account Value
The difference between cheap and frugal, revisited
November 28th, 2007 — Financial Education, Frugal, Lending Club, Series, agrees, cheap, difference, inherently, nutshell, quality, trent from Maneesh Sethi @ Better Rates. Together.
In a very recent article, I talked about the difference between being cheap vs. being frugal. I defined the difference between the two as follows.
• Being cheap - You are unwilling to spend money on anything. Even stuff you need. You go out of your way to save money, even when it might not be a [...]
Related StoresContinue reading → The difference between cheap and frugal, revisited
Thinking About Lending
November 28th, 2007 — Lenders from Mike @ Prosperous Land
Calculated Risk is one of my regular reading blogs for watching the sub-prime housing implosion. In the process, however, there’s some commentary on lending that is relevant for Prosper lenders. Tanta had a long missive on what defines sub-prime, and I…
Related StoresShould You Buy the Extended Warranty?
November 28th, 2007 — Financial Education, Lending Club, coverage, electronics, extended, manufacturer, manufacturer’s, occur, points, warranty from Mike Smith @ Better Rates. Together.
Like any form of insurance, you can probably convince yourself that not buying an extended warranty on an electronics or appliance purchase is a surefire way to ensure that you’ll end up needing it. Whether or not you should buy one is totally up to you, but here are some interesting points to consider from [...]
Related StoresNew forums basically worthless
November 28th, 2007 — Official Forums from zcommodore @ Posts from all blogs
I really don’t like the new forums. I mentioned yesterday that they are very slow and that seems to be the case for most everyone who uses them. In addition, most posts appear to need to be specifically approved by a moderator before they are actually posted. This is cumbersome and impedes any sort of conversation.My new complaints include the fact that I have to be logged in to even read most of the posts. In the old forums, I frequently would lurk as a guest and read the posts I wanted to read when I had a few minutes to kill. Now, I have to go through the login process every time I want to read something since I get timed out if I stay gone too long. That is just annoying. The only board I can actually read if I’m logged out is the Announcements forum and it is only updated once in awhile.Part of the problem with all this is that if someone new wants to check out the site, they would have to actually create an account to read most of what is posted. That’s just dumb.Combined with the slowness of the board to load pages and the fact that I have to log in to read them, I don’t see myself spending a lot of time there anymore. It’s just not worth the trouble.
Related StoresBuy! Buy! Buy?
November 28th, 2007 — Investing from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money
With Abu Dhabi investing 7.5 billion of his oil money in Citigroup, it’s time to ask the question… is it time to buy? Rumors are circulating that this isn’t the only deal in the works. CNBC open speculated that someone might invest significant amounts in homebuilders in the coming weeks. I believe [...]
Related StoresI Can’t Believe It’s Not Linkfest
November 27th, 2007 — linkfest from Mike @ Prosperous Land
Tastes just like linkfest but with half the calories [*]
zcommodore: Loan size going up
I noticed that, while the number of loans being made had appeared to be going down, the size of loans is up significantly this month. (Note this graph shows only …
Related StoresBack In Action After Thanksgiving
November 27th, 2007 — Prosperous Land from Mike @ Prosperous Land
My family and I have safely returned to the land of hippies and music Austin, Tx. I’m getting familiar to the internet again and will return to my usual daily-ish postings once my brain has been returned to it’s full and upright position (just one more…
Related StoresMicroPlace Slideshow (SVMN Meeting)
November 27th, 2007 — Microplace from Jeff & Heather @ My Microfinance
Recently MicroPlace.com presented at a Silicon Valley Microfinance Network meeting. They detailed the flow and business plan for MicroPlace.com and how it could be yet another viable platform for people wanting to rid the world of poverty.
Check out the slideshows here!
We are hoping to purchase more investments from MicroPlace.com in 2008, however, we haven’t integrated [...]
Welcome to the FANAFI Foundation!
November 27th, 2007 — Update from Jeff & Heather @ The FANAFI Foundation
Please feel free to visit our other two sister blogs…
Lend Me Your Goat!
My Microfinance
This blog is currently evolving!
So sad…
November 27th, 2007 — Review, Update from Jeff & Heather @ My Microfinance
The new Prosper forums are pathetic! Slow, dull, highly moderated, no democracy at all. Where are the older posts at? Prosper took one HUGE leap backwards today with the release of what can only be compared to the old Prodigy BBS systems from the 90’s. Completely wrong, wrong, wrong! Prosper has sealed the deal as [...]
Related StoresSeven steps to wealth
November 27th, 2007 — Financial Education, Lending Club, adult, bail, danko, interviewed, millionaires, occupation, outpatient, peer from Tom Tolman @ Better Rates. Together.
How can you join the ranks of America’s wealthy (defined as people whose net worth is over $1 million)? No, you don’t need to win the lottery, become a pop idol or inherit their money. It’s actually easier than that, according to Dr. Thomas J. Stanley and Dr. William D. Danko who wrote The [...]
Related StoresHoliday Tipping Guidelines
November 27th, 2007 — Financial Education, Lending Club, accept, carriers, gift, holiday, pleasant, recommendations, sincerely, tipping from Mike Smith @ Better Rates. Together.
Just as personal connections make person-to-person lending so successful at Lending Club, you probably have many personal relationships with people who provide you with services. Along with all of the other holiday expenses we normally incur, these people may be deserving of a tip or small gift at this time of year.
How [...]
Another Blogger Quits His Day Job
November 27th, 2007 — Financial Freedom from Lazy Man @ Lazy Man and Money
While I was away on vacation I missed the huge announcement from J.D. of Get Rich Slowly. He’s quitting his day job to pursue his dreams of writing. If that sounds a little familiar perhaps it should. He’s also launching a health site called Get Fit Slowly, which might not seem too [...]
Related StoresNew Prosper forums
November 27th, 2007 — Official Forums from zcommodore @ Posts from all blogs
Prosper introduced their new forums last night in a site update. It appears they are hosted by Prosper itself and don’t require a separate login. I was able to create a post as soon as I found the page, having already logged in to my Prosper account.So far, I’m very unimpressed.- The forums load very slowly, to the point of being useless.- Each post is 100% moderated meaning you can post now but who knows when the post will actually appear, if at all.I don’t know if the moderation will be eased but if not, I probably won’t be posting there very often. My first post was about a bug I’ve noticed. That was probably the most useful aspect of the previous forums anymore anyway so I may just stick with that and otherwise not use the forums now unless changes are made.
Related StoresNew Prosper Forum Becomes Reality
November 27th, 2007 — Features, P2P Lending Forums, Prosper.com from RateLadder @ Rate Ladder
ChrisFS called it — New Prosper Forum.
With the site upgrade tonight Prosper announced a new forum. Here is the official announcment…
Dear Prosper Community,
Today we are announcing the start of a new discussion forum system that will replace the existing forums. The forums were established to help guide and construct a new marketplace for lending among [...]
New Forums Coming Soon
November 26th, 2007 — Prosper upgrade, forums from Mike @ Prosperous Land
I return from a peaceful Thanksgiving vacation all psyched up to see what new calamities have struck Prosper, and the forums are down:
This forum has been taken off line in anticipation of the launch of a new forum next week. We apologize for any inco…
Related StoresInterview- PLP Blog
November 26th, 2007 — Update from Jeff & Heather @ My Microfinance
I had the honor of being interviewed by a fellow blogger (Brett) this evening… Q&A session below…
What do you know now that you wish you knew before you started P2P lending?
How to truly assess someone’s credit risk beyond the ‘numbers’. One thing I’ve learned is that someone who cannot type a decent explanation of why [...]
An Azerbaijani Christmas
November 26th, 2007 — P2P Lending from Matt Flannery @ Kiva Chronicles
Kiva is once again taking on an Eastern European/Central Asian flavor. As you check the website from now until the end of the year, you should see a high concentration of Bulgarians, Azerbaijanis, Moldovans, Tajikistanis and the like.
There are two factors strongly at play here. 1) The presence of many highly-dependable and scaleable micro-finance institutions in that part of the world and 2) The fact that loans from these regions are the least desired on the site. Recently, it’s been taking 1 day on average for a loan to become fully funded. The Azerbaijani loans take 3.7 days to be funded on average and are only 30% larger in dollar amount. Why is that? Who knows…
Premal is in Kenya. Among other things, he is consulting with an ailing WEEC and helping kickstart our partnership with BRAC in East Africa. WEEC, as many here know, suffered a huge loss with the passage of Jedidah Waigwa last Spring. Ever since then, they have had trouble moving forward and are experiencing over 30% delinquency across their Kiva portfolio. This has raised an important question inside our organization: How much should we get involved in building the capacity of our partner base? How much should we intervene when a partner is in turmoil? In this case, we’ve pretty much made up our minds — we are doing *alot*. More on that in the months to come…
BRAC — the world’s largest NGO(?) — is a slightly sunnier development. BRAC is a modern marvel and has recently taken its recipe for microfinance into the eastern shores of Africa. As a Bangledeshi organization moving continents, one might perceive potential difficulties in setting up operations. None-so-far from everything we’ve heard. Interest rates: relatively low. Repayment rates: relatively high. Portfolio growth: extremely fast.
Premal had significant cargo to carry. The Kenyan and Ugandan border crossings can be intimidating. How would they react to a party with 25 cameras? Often, governments want to get into your goods. We haven’t heard back, but I assume he arrived safe — cameras and all. Often, cameras are a surprising last mile barrier between borrowers and thousands of dollars in low cost debt pouring through the Kiva website.
We have a donor — Laurent Drion of Brussels — who makes sure that lack of cameras are no excuse. Laurent, a venture capitalist, started one of the biggest Macintosh distribution businesses in Belgium. The man moves consumer electronics — now to Africa. Thank you Laurent. Soon, cameras will be flashing for BRAC in Tanzania, Uganda and Southern Sudan. Sudan? You can do microfinance there? If anyone can, BRAC can.
Related StoresNew MyC4 release
November 26th, 2007 — MyC4, africa from wiseclerk @ P2P-Banking.com
Today a new MyC4 release went online. The new version allows multiple standing orders which can be targeted by country, provider and/or industry of the borrower. There are several small improvements in usability, e.g. display of borrower APR.
MyC4 users have transfered 507,000 Euro in funds, but so far only 214,000 Euro of those have been [...]
Avoid Lending Scams
November 26th, 2007 — Financial Education, Lending Club, Scam, faxed, lady, peer, scammed, scams, western, wire from Tom Tolman @ Better Rates. Together.
I recently received an email from a lady in the Midwest who was the victim of an online lending scam. She found my blog about P2P lending and wanted to know if P2P lending was a scam or if she could use it to lift her out of her financial troubles. With her permission [...]
Related StoresRateLadder Quicken ROI Update November 1, 2007
November 26th, 2007 — Features, Prosper.com, Quicken, Statistics, Tools from RateLadder @ Rate Ladder
I have decided to continue to track my Quicken ROI even though Prosper has removed the Prosper ROI link from the lending tab. I have also decided to keep the Prosper ROI on the graph for reference.
This Quicken ROI is calculated using the method described here.
My Quicken Prosper ROI went from 11.96% to 12.34%. [...]
Continue reading → RateLadder Quicken ROI Update November 1, 2007
Watching Kiva Funds in Action!
November 26th, 2007 — Naomi Arron, P2P Lending from naomiarron @ Kiva Blogs from the Field
I’ve been in Kenya for a couple of weeks now and have seen such diversity in not only the people, plants, and animals but also in standard of living, quality of life, and income levels. Like anywhere in the world some people live expensive, lavish lifestyles while others work hard with little to show for it at [...]
Related StoresFree Shipping Enticements
November 26th, 2007 — Financial Education, Lending Club,