Another interesting place to put your money:
NYTimes Article
The actual site
Thursday, January 8, 2009
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3 comments:
Dan, are you down to do this? I remember you posted about something else awhile ago. This definitely looks great. Let me know and we can talk about it someday. So I'm guessing, it's like we're earning "interest" and giving them loans? But then, how does qifang help them out when they can just get the same anywhere else? Maybe I'm not that knowledgeable yet. Hope your 2nd week in boston is treating you well bud. Sean, alfred what you think about this?
Many of these chinese students are from rural areas and are not able to obtain loans from regular banks (they have no credit history and nothing to secure a loan with such as property etc). These students are also not able to obtain student loans (I'm not sure if there is such a thing as financial aid in China-- or if these students are just unqualified for it due to their economic status). Furthermore, the places they can get loans at are usually predatory lenders which charge ridiculous interest rates.
This website allows investors such as you and me to invest our money in these students at a fairly low interest rate for them (typically below 10%). There is a risk involved for us if the students decide to default, but as the NYTimes article has noted-- none of the lenders have defaulted yet.
I think it's a good idea. Im already doing the loaning thing through KIVA. It's pretty cool.
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