Anyone use sharedinterest savings / fair trade loans

thedon

I like the idea of saving a small amount each month and lending this to people trying to make a living in impoverished countries.

I've seen a few microfinance websites where you lend to specific individuals or start-ups such as lendwithcare.org or kiva.org but am more drawn to https://www.shared-interest.com who I used for a while last time I had a few spare £100's. I think the reason for this is that I'm not have to choose an individual, my money is shared across many deserving cases (albeit already in FairTrade scheme and therefore already "on the ladder" to a better life)

I'm a little concerned that sharedinterest does't carry the FairTrade badge, and describes their lending as Fair Trade - which perhaps isn't the assosciation I'd like to believe it has.

Does anyone have any knowledge of these schemes or able to recommend any particular service? (I can only find the UK peer-peer lending review article on MSE for services like Zopa)

jamesd

I can't comment on the others but:

Zopa no longer passes my ethics filter.

This is because it charges an up front fee that can be more than £1,000 and is not refunded if part of the loan or all of it is repaid early after the initial cancellation period ends. The fee is to cover average bad debts across a pool of lenders and depends on the credit grade of the borrower and loan size. It's much less for the highest grades and smallest loans.

This only applies to their new system. The old one is fine on my personal ethics test. I simply don't want to be supporting lending in that way and currently do not plan to do any lending using Zopa's current system for both this reason and the low interest rates available, as well as the increased risks involved in the way the new one is structured

Savvy_Sue

It's not one I'd heard of but having checked their website they do have the WFTO logo and the Queen's Award for Enterprise 2013!

I found this bit:

Shared Interest is a strong supporter of fair trade and has staff members on the Boards of both the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) and the Fairtrade Foundation, the UK's licensing arm of the Fairtrade International (FLO).

Does that help at all?

thedon

Thanks Savvy_Sue - I think that confirms it as legit. enough for me. I'll go for it.

Thanks again

Jim

NumboJumbo

I've been with SharedInterest for approx 3 years now, and they've always impressed me with the way they handle things, ranging from dealing with questions from me to their transparency via newsletters of where and how the interest on my money is being allocated.

Similar schemes that ethically lend the interest on my money are:
http://www.oikocredit.coop/
http://www.charitybank.org/