Kiva Changes

I have written about this before: several years ago I received money for my Birthday and used that to loan to people using the site – Kiva. You can chose the location, the gender and even the area that you want to loan to. Whenever the amount gets to the minimum I re-loan it to someone else. I have helped many people across the country and the world.

I have been receiving e-mails from Kiva telling me that they have changed their loaning process and that it will start in a few days. If you have the minimum amount in your account and do not re-loan your money within 90 days then Kiva will automatically loan it out along with a  “standard 15% optional tip” to Kiva. They say they have settings to opt-out of this new system (which I think I have.)

I have liked using Kiva throughout the years, but do not agree with this new policy or system at all. Kiva is moving away from helping people help others around the US and the rest of the world to forcing people – by literally taking their money. They will use our money and give it to people.  I especially do not like that they will take our money and put it in their own pocket (the 15% “optional” tip.)

When I was first told of this new policy I was ready to delete my Kiva account right away, but then I saw you can opt-out of this auto re-loaning and so I did. I do not believe that anyone should have to opt-out of this (if anything you should have to opt-in since it is your money), but I am willing to wait and see if Kiva automatically re-loans my money – and takes a cut for themselves. If they do then I will deactivate my account and never use them again.

Hopefully they have not become so self-obsessed and money-hungry that they will risk alienating users from re-loaning OUR money (not THEIR money). It’s a wait-and-see game now.