Kiva.org - lend money via CC/GC

[TimT]

They have loans to a long list of countries including the  USA, but not one loan to Israel.
If you want like to help out this Mr Jihad that's a option as well. Ya know it's not free building those tunnels.

That loan will eventually reach israel. By air or by tunnel.

[srap]

Who said I'm doing it for the Chessed. I would do it cos they take CC

Once you chop that you most likely are not getting your money back, you might as well give it to your favorite chessed organization WITH A CC and get schar for it too (and a tax deduction)!!

[Travelandcredit]

YMMV, but I followed FM's advice and used the site that narrows down search results and lets you do a bulk batch loan selection. Saved me a ton of time and allowed me to only loan small amounts to the lowest risk people with the fastest pay back times. I did $3,500 in March (went big I guess?) and have currently lost $0, and only have $1,100 outstanding still. All my loans wrap up in Apr/May of next year. Sure, I missed out on some interest on the money, but it's money I would've been using for MS one way or another. Opportunity cost. Worked great to hit the spend on my US Bank Flexperks card for last years olympic bonus.

[yids]

YMMV, but I followed FM's advice and used the site that narrows down search results and lets you do a bulk batch loan selection. Saved me a ton of time and allowed me to only loan small amounts to the lowest risk people with the fastest pay back times. I did $3,500 in March (went big I guess?) and have currently lost $0, and only have $1,100 outstanding still. All my loans wrap up in Apr/May of next year. Sure, I missed out on some interest on the money, but it's money I would've been using for MS one way or another. Opportunity cost. Worked great to hit the spend on my US Bank Flexperks card for last years olympic bonus.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Is there any reason you would say not to risk it? (Assuming you can float the money)

[Travelandcredit]

Thank you for sharing your experience. Is there any reason you would say not to risk it? (Assuming you can float the money)

I personally don't consider it very risky. I consider it a 0 on the risk scale compared to MS options via Loyal3, etc...!!

I mean, assuming you're doing loans in $25 batches, and the site's repayment/default rate, I wouldn't do it if you can't handle up to a 2% loss. That 2% loss would be very RARE though, so it's a pretty good situation. It says the average customer has lost about $1... multiply that by what the average customer donates for your own (probably high) donation, and you're looking at maybe $10-20? I'm at $0 personally, but I filtered by the best options and quickest repays. YMMV, but I definitely consider it a worthwhile option.