Welcome to The Nest. Take the time to learn about all things related to loans, money, and relationships. Listen to stories from The Chirp, or dive into Tips and Tricks for dealing with your finances the smart way.

The Nest | Pigeon Loans

Well, here we are, Pigeon Loans has officially been alive and kicking for 5 months now, and has grown tremendously since our launch. We now have thousands of people visiting our site at any given time, and a boatload of users signing up every day from multiple countries around the world. We’ve seen numerous loans come to a close, with many ending in full repayment; we’ve released partnerships with brands all over, and quite honestly…we are just getting started! We believe in the phrase “it takes a village to raise a pigeon” and so far you all have been our village, so thank you.

If you are reading this, you are among the first to join the Pigeon Loans community, so, because of your support we wanted to give you the inside scoop on our latest developments. As we grow, we hope you’ll follow along and take flight with us. So without further ado, welcome to the first edition of The Carrier, and (wow!) do we have a lot for you to digest.

First and Foremost: Find us on Product Hunt!

Product Hunt is an awesome community that showcases and highlights trending startups, and it is a great place to learn about new ideas and technology.

Despite the common misconception that birds and cats don’t get along, we decided to debut on Product Hunt. We recently launched on the platform, and encourage you to go check out our Pigeon Loans Page and give us some feedback on our creation! It is a great place for conversation, so feel free to post a comment, ask a question, or crack a joke; the Pigeon Loans community will be there to answer you.

Alternatively, if you simply want to show your support you can “Upvote” us to let us know you are out there rooting for us in the stands (woooooooooooo!).

So if you didn’t already know we launched a pretty big giveaway late last year. It’s been a few months since we had our coming-out party to the world, so the time has finally come to announce the winners of the inaugural Pigeon Loans x Champion Sweatshirt Giveaway.

The opportunity to enter closed on Jan 31st, and we had many people enter this sweepstakes. This week we sent out a “congratulations email”, to the lucky few that won our custom made sweatshirt and the $500 cash prize, so make sure you check your inbox, because you might have an email from us!

And of course, congratulations to the winners!

Can you guess how long it took for us to integrate HelloSign’s API?

HelloSign, a Dropbox company, recently interviewed us and featured us on their website. You check out how long it took, Brian Bristol, CTO, and co-founder, to fully integrate the HelloSign API by heading over to their testimonials page.

HelloSign & Dropbox then followed up on the testimonial by releasing a multi-page case study (👈 Pssst…read me)into our patent-pending, innovative technology! So if you want a better understanding of Pigeon Loans’ “behind the scene” you can read up about it, by clicking the link above.

Fun Fact Alert: Did you know Pigeons and humans have lived in close proximity for at least the last 10,000 years? The first written records of humans and pigeons cohabiting date back to around 3,000 BC and describe ancient Mesopotamian (modern-day Iraq) and ancient Egyptian societies feeding pigeons!

Our founder is a Junior Achievement Alumnus

Junior Achievement is a globally reaching, education focused, NGO non-profit, that seeks to “inspire and prepare young people to succeed in the global economy”.

Turns out, one of our founders is a Junior Achievement Alumnus himself. We connected with the non-profit, shared stories, and spoke about Pigeon Loans. They loved our company, so they blasted Pigeon Loans all over their networks; go check out their website and their social media to learn more!

Of course, if you are a Junior Achievement Alum, please reach out, join the Gather network, and say hello, we would love to connect!

The Carrier is going to become a regular occurrence for us here at Pigeon Loans. We have so much more exciting news and announcements lined up for next month that we can’t wait to share with you.

Stay tuned, stay safe, and keep on chirping!

Welcome to The Carrier - Pigeon Loans' monthly newsletter dedicated to updating you on all the news, notes, and developments happening in our community.

Welcome to The Carrier

September is a month for fresh beginnings: classes for all the little children are starting back up, people are going back into work (or are they?), the leaves are changing and preparing for Fall. And most importantly, you can find pigeons all around the world, eating lots of food and getting ready for cuffing season (hmm…should we build a Tinder for birds next?).

With September, finally wrapped up and behind us, our team can finally breathe a sign of relief. We’ve been putting the finishing touches on an enormous variety of developments that we are finally ready to share with you! Like we say, literally every month, we think this is going to be the most shocking, jaw-dropping, flabbergasting, just plainly rootin’-tootin’ wild edition of The Carrier yet. So, grab your popcorn and your favorite pumpkin flavored drink, sit back, relax, and try to forget that we sent out this “September” newsletter on October 1st 🤦‍♂️. Welcome toThe Carrier— big birthday edition!

For our first magic trick of this illustrious birthday edition of The Carrier, we would like to welcome to the stage our brand new Pigeon Loans website !!!

Yeah, we made this the first update in the newsletter because we figured some of you smart folks (we know, we got a few lil Einstein wannabes in our community) might have already noticed the big change. Our new website has been up and running, *oh so smoothly* for the past week — and so far the people love it.

For months we’ve been working with the Skyward Digital team, headed by our good friend and often mentioned, Dan Spratling, to bring this brand new user experience to life. We have cool animations, awesome colors, and a bunch of fun, entertaining, and educational content for you to browse through while you’re on the toilet.

Within the new website you’ll find a fully fleshed out Help Center filled with answers to any questions you may have about loans, finances, relationships, or how best to use Pigeon Loans.

You’ll also find a cool carousel of user feedback we have gotten over the year, outlining the wonderful things people have said about Pigeon Loans during their time within our community and using our platform!

To think that this whole journey all started from customer feedback is heart-warming to say the least — you all really made us work for this, but now it’s here and ready to go (please don’t break it, just be gentle while scrolling).

For a fun activity, you should hop on over to the old Pigeon Loans website and compare it to the new Pigeon Loans experience. You’ll notice the new sleek edges, elevated fonts, bombastic colors, and glistening eggshell white background (Coca-Cola should definitely hire us to voice over their next Super Bowl commercial).

Go check out our website, and drop us a note in our new Feedback form to let us know how we did!

Story 1: Don’t Get Married In Your 20s 🕊️

Wow, okay, alright, that’s fine (inspiration for said words from Champagne Papi). We got one big piece of news out of the way, and honestly, we needed to save time, and our limited character count on Medium, for big update #2.

Some of you might already know this, but we recently released a podcast! It’s called The Chirp, and it’s entertaining, so you should listen to it.

If you still have that popcorn and your pumpkin spiced drink that we mentioned earlier, you should probably get a refill, because our first episode of The Chirp is shockingly entertaining. As we let you all know last month — The Chirp allows you to unwind for about a half-hour during which you can listen to everyday people discuss their ups and downs, their wins and losses, their peeks and troughs within the wild world of personal finance and relationships.

In this episode entitled, Story 1: Don’t Get Married in Your 20s, you’ll hear a story captivating story about how sometimes shared finances and unspoken expectations can unfortunately cause a strain on your deepest relationship.

Listen as we talk with CEO of washbnb, Daniel Cruz about his struggles with juggling his marriage, divorce, money, his career, and aspirations in life.

Story 1: Don't Get Married In Your 20s 👇

Story 1: Don‘t Get Married In Your 20s

Oh yeah, did you forget!? It was our birthday!!!

P.S. We are still accepting all forms of cash presents.

Yeah you probably guessed it, but we’re Virgos and we’re proud of it 💁‍♀️! You might not have known this, but Pigeon Loans was only launched one year ago — yeah we’re still a little hatchling in the eyes of many. We‘ve accomplished so much over the past year, and we couldn’t have done it without each one of you, so we wanted to share this moment with you, awwwweee.

Scroll up to view the embedded tweet about what we’ve accomplished over the past year. But to think this all started off as just a dream, and is now a community home to over 6,000 of you makes us oh so very proud.

We want to end this edition of The Carrier with a simple message for our community:

Thank you for following us along this journey of ours *raises glass of apple cider*. Here’s to many more years of growth to come 🥂

Lol, hopefully we release the next month’s October edition…in October *shrugs*

September 2021: All The Latest News About Pigeon Loans

We've got a brnad new website to announce and a new episode of The Chirp to talk about. Also, we just finished celebrating our first birthday! So check out all the craziness that's happened at Pigeon Loans in the month of Septmeber.

The Carrier: Two Launches and a Year-Gone-By

Welcome back to The Carrier! Summer is in full swing, and we hope you are enjoying every second of it.

You already know the deal. We’re back again with more Pigeon-related fun facts, GIFs galore, and a sprinkle of Pigeon Loans related news. We have some burgeoning (*big word*) updates for you this month, so we won’t keep you waiting any longer. Without further ado, let’s get to the scoop.

For a couple of months now, we’ve been working behind the scenes on something big. What could be bigger than a couple of billionaires going into space you might ask? Well, wait until you hear this. 😏😏😏 *drumroll please*

We are redesigning the Pigeon Loans website! 🙌

For months now, you’ve gotten used to our iconic orange background, interestingly contrasting color schemes, and oddly phenomenal use of Google stock images on our website. Even though we love our current website, and the fact that it’s the first version of the Pigeon Loans experience (*sheds a proud single tear*) we know there is room for improvement and growth.

So to make the Pigeon Loans experience more engaging, more informative, and more exciting we’re taking all of your user feedback from our survey(s), feature requests from our walkthroughs, and combining it all into one brand new captivating experience! With the large (exponential 🤯) amount of growth that we are seeing, and continue to see every day, we decided to double down on the Pigeon Loans experience and make it even more enjoyable for our wonderful users like you.

To get the job done right, we were able to hire an amazing freelance front-end developer in, Dan Spratling, to take the lead on this project. You already know of Dan’s work because he designed the original version of the Pigeon Loans homepage, and lucky for you, he has been a 💫 star 💫 at documenting his journey on his Twitter, so send him a follow to keep up with his work. If you want, check out his tweets straight from the source, or you can revel in awe at our ability to use Medium’s snazzy embedding technology here as well.

Dan, has worked with Pigeon Loans before and has put together some incredible designs and results, giving us full confidence that he will make your user journey through the website oh so smooth.

We are sure you will love the re-design as much as we do! Be ready for the launch Q3/Q4 2021!

Trained pigeons can tell the difference between the paintings of Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet

We know a website redesign, while very exciting, is also extremely stressful.

Will there still be cute little footprints on the website? Will we still rely on our signature orange tones?

We have covered all of our grounds, and want to reassure you that all of the work is getting approved by the top, most sought after, art critics: Pigeons.

A psychologist in 1995 demonstrated that his Pigeons could discern between a Picasso and a Monet, and more broadly between a cubist painting and an impressionist painting.

If Pigeons can tell the difference between two of the most important art movements ever, surely they can also tell us if our website looks wonky. We are going to have every re-design decision vetted by the true crème de la crème art critics!

Don’t believe us about these Pigeon abilities? Read the full scientific paper yourself.

Storytime: Pigeon Loans Helps A Small Business Owner

So for awhile now, we’ve talked a lot about all of the growth we are having on our platform. In other newsletters, we gave you real, hard, statistical numbers. But the people in our community are more than just numbers. They are business owners, mothers, college students, athletes, investors, and so much more. With this reality in mind, we want you to really feel attached to this community, and for that reason, we have decided to highlight a story we were recently told that we consider a real success for Pigeon Loans.

One of our users, let’s call her Katie for anonymity sake, owns a beauty supply store and has been working to get it off the ground for quite some time. She saw some growth here and there, but she really wanted to take her store to the next level. Katie, being the business savvy woman she is, and aiming to bring in a larger customer base, decided to expand her beauty store inventory. While she was ready to grow, expand, and show off her business skills, she needed an upfront investment to be able to buy more items like, makeup, hair care products, lotions, oils, etc., which meant she needed cash. She didn’t have the ability nor want to go to traditional institutions, like banks and loan sharks, for help, so where did she turn to? Her family.

This was a difficult and challenging time for Katie because many people in her family were reluctant to give her a loan. Many of them believed they wouldn’t get their money back, relationships would be ruined, and the overall experience would just be damaging to everyone involved. Katie worked pretty hard to convince her relatives to give her a loan, and finally, one day, she got the green light from a cousin of hers, and was off and running. Over the course of some time, Katie ended up successfully growing her business, paying back her cousin, and with significant interest at that.

So this is where the game changed for Katie. Her originally benevolent cousin, looked at the cash they had received back from their loan with Katie. With only a short amount of time having gone by, an increase of money in their bank account, and realizing they had made more money supporting Katie than investing in the stock or bond market, an epiphany occurred.

Would you care to venture a guess as to what happened next?

All of a sudden, those same family members that turned Katie away before, were now knocking down her door looking to help her and make money together (funny how that works). As you can imagine, Katie started getting requests, left and right, from everyone: family members, friends, and even passerby's who wanted to lend her money to help her grow her business. The reality finally sunk in, and interested lenders finally understood that by giving Katie a little bit of money to spur growth in her business combined with Katie’s ability to honor her commitments meant that they would be making an investment that benefitted them, just as much as it would Katie in the long run.

As you might have guessed, Katie is now using Pigeon Loans to juggle all the different loans from her family members being used to fund her beauty supply store. And yes, everyone is thriving — Katie is able to do the work she loves, her family is simultaneously supporting her and investing their money, and Katie’s customers? Well, they have access to brand new, top-of-the-shelf inventory.

Finally, we wanted to leave you with some news on a recent bit of exposure we had. A few weeks ago we were invited to appear on the Test. Optimize. Scale podcast produced by the Digital Niche Agency.

Digital Niche Agency is a digital marketing agency based out of Los Angeles, and they help build up-and-coming companies by providing them digital marketing tools, consulting, and guidance. We popped up on their radar through WeFunder, and they were interested in our story, and how we were able to scale Pigeon Loans so quickly. Check out the video below to watch our Co-Founder & CTO, Brian Bristol, have an in-depth conversation with Jason Fishman, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Niche Agency.

Test. Optimize. Scale. #42 “Listen to the Small Voices in Your Community” w/ Brian Bristol

To listen to more Test. Optimize. Scale, you can find this podcast wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc.)

Well there you have it, the July newsletter. We can confidently say that this is not a “goodbye”, it is simply a “till we meet again”.

July 2021: All The Latest News About Pigeon Loans

We've got a story to tell - read about how Pigeon Loans helped support an entrepreneur in growing her small business. Along with that, check out a preview of our upcoming website redesign.

The Carrier: A Sneak Peak, Storytime, and a Podcast

We hope you aren’t getting tired of us yet because *boy oh boy* do we have a big announcement for you this month. By now you already know the drill. We enjoy making a bit of noise here and there - whether it be screaming from the top of our lungs about our Wefunder campaign or buying taxis and covering them with our logos, we love to be seen and aim to be heard. With the summer’s end fast approaching, we of course had to close out the warm weather and days of endless sunshine with a bang.

So without further ado, welcome back to The Carrier 😈

The Chirp: Coming To An RSS Feed Near You

That’s right, starting today you will be hearing from us even more often, but this time in the form of a podcast. We know, we know...we’re right on the nose (or should we say on the beak 👀) when it comes to the puns we come up with for our content (we blame our non-existent intern for these terrible jokes). But, even with our lack of creativity in mind, we are excited to announce this new initiative and introduce you to The Chirp: A Podcast by Pigeon Loans.

For some of you out there you might have already guessed that we were working on a new way to talk with our community. Over the course of pretty much our entire existence, we’ve heard so many stories from you all about your own personal journeys with loans within your relationships. From stealing money from a jealous ex-boyfriend due to a newfound love (wild story for another time) to borrowing cash to invest in Beanie Babies, you all have countless stories about times in which you’ve moved money within your relationships.

With all of these stories about loans, money, and relationships floating around and no one really giving a mic to this boisterous audience, we figured why not document the stories we all know and “love” and give them a voice?

Yeah, this is a crazy idea, we know, but we are doing it anyway! Our new podcast, The Chirp, is here to educate you on the world of loans, its impact on relationships, and how we can remove the stress of lending with friends and family. For the rest of eternity, we will be interviewing thought leaders, celebrities, nobodies, somebodies, perhaps cute animals, and everything in between, and asking them for their stories — the times in which money became a subject within their relationships.

For all these wonderful, once in a lifetime, uncomfortably entertaining stories, we’ll be bringing on the newest member of the Pigeon Loans team, Cameron Laird, to lead the conversation on these tall tales. He will be exploring the world of loans, and personal finance alongside us, and will definitely bring some light-heartedness and deep insights to the conversations we’ll all be listening to. Given that Cameron has a majestically burly Irish accent, we figured what better way to introduce The Chirp than to hear it from the host himself! So sit back, close your eyes, open your ears, press play, and melt away into the comfort of our new Irish lull.

Introducing The Chirp: A Podcast By Pigeon Loans

When we do it, we do it big! You can find The Chirp anywhere you listen to your podcasts:

Join us as we talk with everyday people and dive into the positive, the negative, and all the stories in between that we all hold near and dear to our hearts when it comes to dealing with money within our relationships.

Our Pigeon Loans Community Survey Results

You might remember, a couple of months ago we launched our first ever Pigeon Loans user survey to get a better understanding of your interactions with our platform, where we have room for improvement, and why you all keep asking for animations of flying pigeons to be in our website. Well, thanks to your contributions, we received well over 200 responses, and we’re so thankful to each one of you for taking the time to share your feedback.

So for your reading pleasure, we wanted to take a moment and share a couple high-level results of the survey with the greater Pigeon Loans community. If your curiosity is as peaked as ours is about why the Crate Challenge exists, then feel free to browse through the following stats.

We had survey responders of all ages! However, the most popular age bracket seemed to be the 36–50 year old age range, with 41% of responders falling in that demographic.

About 18% of our responders are from Texas. It is so nice to see that Pigeons can get along well with the Texas state bird, the Northern Mockingbird 😊

More than 50% of you all attest to having a full-time job.

You all have a wide variety of your favorite features when it comes to our platform. With 97 votes, “Loan Reminders” seems to be your favorite feature so far on Pigeon Loans.

And, maybe the part of the survey that brings the most tears to our eyes…At least 205 responders ‘Strongly Agree’ or ‘Agree’ with the belief that they would share Pigeon Loans with someone they know 🥺🥺🥺

Mirror, Mirror, on The Wall…Who’s The Fairest Pigeon Of Them All

By now you must know how much we love our bird related fun facts. Just in case you were running low on conversation starters for your next shin-dig, we’re here to replenish your intellect, literally.

Did you know there is a whole Wikipedia dedicated to the topic of Pigeon Intelligence?

That’s right! Pigeons are one of the few animals in the world that can recognize themselves in a mirror.

Unlike…dogs…pigeons do not think their reflection is another animal who is trying to attack them, mock them, or shun them. For most animals, this form of self awareness is actually pretty rare, and a sign of advanced cognitive development.

The final part of this month’s newsletter is just as exciting as the first! Since our launch, we’ve been asking for your feedback and we’ve been listening. So many of you have asked for us to increase our loan limits to allow you for greater flexibility in how you structure and use your loan. So, we did just that.

As of this month, you can now officially make loans with your friends and family up to $250,000 USD. Anyone starting a loan will be able to lend or borrow TEN TIMES the amount we allowed previously. There’s no limit to the possibilities this increased flexibility gives our community. You may create a loan to finance the down payment on a home, you might use your funds to purchase a car, or if you are like us, you’ll get a loan to buy your own personal Tesla Bot.

If you have more questions about these new limits, you can always check out our very informative FAQ page for more information, or of course, you can email us at support@pigeonloans.io.

Wow! What a month! As per usual, stay safe, stay tuned. Next month is OUR BIRTHDAY, so come back next edition prepared and rested, because you are going to need it for all the news we’ve been saving for this very special occasion!

August 2021: All The Latest News About Pigeon Loans

We're taking a new approach to tackling the conversation about handling money within relationships. With an introduction to Pigeon Loans' new podcast, The Chirp, this monthly update is filled with plenty of newsletter goodness for your reading pleasure.

The Carrier: Let’s Get Chirping & Updates Galore

Thought we weren’t going to publish this month? Well, looks like you were you wrong about that huh? Silly human.

Buckle in for a wild ride, because this month we are talking CodePath, Clubhouse, TechCrunch, and may even sprinkle in a few product updates just for fun.

Pitching Everywhere: TechCrunch and Clubhouse

So first on the docket this month, is a glorious reflection on our TechCrunch guest appearance. Yes, the same TechCrunch that has nearly 15 million visitors every month and whose parent company just sold for FIVE BILLION dollars to Apollo Global Management. In one of TechCrunch’s latest Extra Crunch: Live events, Pigeon Loans had the honor of being selected and featured on stage to pitch in front of a live global audience. With one of the world’s greatest investors in Rick Heitzmann of FirstMark Capital (Rick is the reason we have Airbnb, Discord, and Pinterest…everybody say “thank you Rick”) serving as the judge and Court Cunningham of Orchard backing his remarks, the event was extra spicy. We wish you could have been there live to attend, but rumor on the street is a recording of this event will be posted on TechCrunch soon, so keep an eye out for more related postings here.

The other event we want to chirp about is our time spent in the Clubhouse audio room that goes by the code name “Crowdhouse”. If you haven’t heard of Crowdhouse before, imagine Shark Tank and Clubhouse having a baby, and then throwing a little 2021 culture on it — can you picture it? Brian, one of our co-founders was invited to perform an exclusive (that’s right, “exclusive”) Clubhouse pitch hosted in the Crowdhouse audio room. It might not have been our best showing ever, buuuuuuuttttt we still enjoyed our Clubhouse debut (note to self, never pitch on the beta version of a newly released app).

Luckily or maybe unluckily 🤔 (we’re still undecided on our feelings) you can give it a listen as well. A recording of each event is usually posted online for your listening pleasure, so follow #crowdhouse on Twitter to find it when it’s released. While you are at it, you should also check out CurlMix; they pitched on Crowdhouse as well during the event, and are on a breathtaking rocketship to success.

Now let’s talk about CodePath 👨‍💻

Codepath.org is a wonderful organization!

If you haven’t heard about CodePath already, they are a national non-profit on a mission to eliminate educational inequity in technical careers. CodePath is increasing diversity in tech by transforming college computer science education for underrepresented minorities and underserved populations all around the country.

Once again, one of our co-founders, Brian, got the chance to talk to a live audience, and this time it was with CodePath students, speaking on the topic of “Life After College in Tech”. The event was a huge success with over 80 students having signed up and over 20 of them attending live via Zoom!

If you would like to donate to this amazing non-profit and help change the future of the technology industry, you can do so by visiting the Codepath Donation page.

We’ve been experiencing tremendous growth over the past couple of months. Every day, more and more people are learning about Pigeon Loans and sharing our creation with their friends, family, and loved ones. With such tremendous growth, we decided we wanted to share just how explosive it has been with you.

So from now until eternity (or until robots take over the Internet) you can know exactly how many people are on our platform and interacting within our community! Head on over to our homepage, scroll down a bit, and check it out in all of its glory. Or better. Just stare at the gif below for as long as your eyes will allow you too. *Numbers accurate as of May 19, 2021

With our flock growing so much, we know some of you have been having challenges navigating our platform. We’re working on building something new and amazing to address many of these user experience hurdles (*hint* *HINT*) but until that day comes, we’ve decided to incorporate something special into your customer journey.

You may have noticed (or might not have, because we never formally announced it), but on our Contact page there is now a new section. This section we like to call “Walkthrough With A Founder” is a special joint calendar representing our two founder’s availability throughout any given week. These guys are the experts on all things Pigeon Loans (lol. of course they are, they built the platform). So for all of your burning questions you couldn’t find a FAQ answer to or you simply just want to answer the question — “How does Pigeon Loans work?” you can now discuss all of your inquiries over with the brains behind the magic!

Hit us up on Calendly if you’re ready to go 1-on-1, mono-e-mono, with a Pigeon Loans founder.

The presses have been pressed and the calendars have been Calendly-ed (*ba dum tss*). There was plenty of news to come out this month, and we’ll be here in 30 days to do it all again.

As always, stay tuned, stay safe, and keep on chirping!

May 2021: All The Latest News About Pigeon Loans

Find out how Pigeon Loans got features on TechCrunch, Clubhouse, and Codepath. Also, dive deep and learn about some new changes to the Pigeon Loans' user journey.

The Carrier: Hot Off The Press

Loans can be extremely stressful. Add in a family dynamic or even a close friendship, and money starts to become a touchy subject for everyone involved. We all have a story: you sent Betty $5,000 for home renovations expecting to get paid back in two years. However, 3 years go by, then 4 years, and then 5, and you suddenly realize your money will probably never return. After waiting all this time, you’ve lost $5,000, begun to resent your best friend, and you have ultimately realized your longtime relationship with Betty is now damaged.

Despite everyone’s tragic loan stories, lending, or even borrowing money from friends or family can be extremely rewarding. At Pigeon Loans we believe loans among loved ones can be both successful and gratifying. Over the years, the individuals in our community have created, supported, and enabled countless loans with the people they are closest to. We decided to ask ourselves one simple question, “What is the most important thing to remember when creating a stress-free loan with your friends and family?”. We dwindled down our thoughts and experiences into 4 comprehensive tips that you can benefit from when starting your next loan. So, without further ado, we present Pigeon Loans’ 4 Essential Tips to Successfully Navigating Loans with Friends & Family.

1. Start off strong by separating business from your relationship.

One of the most important things you can do when making a loan with friends or family is to keep it “strictly business”. Making it clear that your loan is separate from your relationship will accomplish two things. (1) This mindset will help protect your relationship in case your loan goes awry. (2) Treating your loan as purely a financial transaction will allow everyone to think more objectively about the loan.

Before starting your loan, we recommend you talk about the prospects of a loan with your friend or family member openly and honestly. Concrete steps need to be taken in order to foster an open conversation about your loan, so for your reading pleasure, we have outlined those steps below:

Create a space to have conversations about the loan. For example, schedule a specific time dedicated to talking about your loan. Depending on who decides to bring up the topic of a loan first, it is best to let the other party know you will take your time thinking about the details of your loan. After seriously considering your thoughts about the loan, set up another discussion with your loved one. Navigating the beginnings of your loan in this order ensures that you are not overwhelmed and that you don’t accidentally agree to something you don’t feel comfortable with.

Ask yourself and the other party of your loan what you both want out of this agreement. Some things you should consider include:

How much money are you willing to lend? How much money are you willing to take? Consider this in the context of your finances as a whole.

Do you want to add an interest rate to your loan? How much interest should be charged?

What would you do if the loan could not be repaid in full?

2. Set expectations early and in writing.

After discussing your loan and answering the above questions, make a formal loan contract. Having your thoughts, discussions, questions, agreements, and contentions in writing is a great way to set the expectations of your loan from the very beginning. Not only will you have a reference point for your loan, but you will also have documentation to look back on in case there is any confusion or disagreement in the future. Upon creating a contract, both the Lender and the Borrower should spend some time looking over the document to make sure they agree with all the clauses & terms before signing. Once signed, both parties should keep a copy of the loan agreement for themselves.

Having all of your loan matters in writing also applies to any changes you want to make to an agreement. For example, if you and your loan counterpart decide that you would like to extend the timeline on the loan, you should make an amendment to your original contract and keep these two documents in the same place.

While a lot of people believe it is a good idea to have a contract, most individuals are afraid to ask for a formal agreement. In situations such as these, using a third-party platform (*hint* Pigeon Loans *hint*) to create an agreement and manage various aspects of the loan is an easy way to have a contract without having to deal with the related challenges.

Having some level of flexibility when dealing with financial matters with someone you trust is important. However, having too much leniency when dealing with matters such as late payments, or underpayments, can quickly turn a stress free loan into a financial nightmare.

If all parties involved in your loan decided to schedule repayments for the 1st of each month, stick to that commitment. If payments become overdue or late you should have a conversation with the other party as soon as possible to rectify this situation. Late payments can set a bad tone for future payments. One late payment may turn into two late payments, and this behavior could continue until all of a sudden payments begin arriving in erratic intervals and are no longer paid in full.

Of course, sometimes the Borrower of any given loan really does need more time to make a payment. In these scenarios, it is best to consider extending the loan timeline. Extending a loan allows the Lender to receive more interest on their Principal and it allots the Borrower more time to pay off their debt. Before signing an extension agreement, you should have a conversation about it, just as you did with the original loan agreement, to make sure everyone is on the same page.

4. Be honest with yourself and trust your instincts.

Lending money is a risk, so you should only lend money that you are comfortable losing. Borrowing money can be a burden, so you should only borrow money if you can take on new debt obligations. Being honest with yourself about what you want out of your loan can be tricky because it means weighing your needs vs your spouse’s, best friend’s, mother’s, or even child’s needs. Trust your instincts and spend some time with your thoughts to figure out what you can and can’t do, as well as what you want to do.

Most importantly, don’t forget to enjoy the loan process. You are either helping out a friend in need or expressing a new level of vulnerability within an already strong relationship. As stressful as it may be, a successful loan can be very rewarding and can provide a lot of financial relief for both parties. So if you are ever in need of a loan, follow these tips and you’ll have peace of mind.

Want to read more related content? Check out some more of our awesome educational pieces below:

Balance Transfers vs Personal Loans: Here Is The Difference

Lending Money? Borrowing Money? Avoid Tax Pitfalls

There are a lot of hurddles and tough conversations to consider if you are attempting to make a loan with a friend or family member.  Follow these quick tips to make your next loan a successful and positive experience for everyone.

4 Essential Tips to Successfully Navigating Loans with Friends & Family

How to loan someone money, maintain your relationship, and get paid back.

When it comes to making a loan with friends or family, there are two extremely important components of a loan that Lenders care about:

The likelihood that the money being given out as a loan will be paid back in full.

The hope of maintaining a good standing relationship with a Borrower after a loan is complete.

When thought of together, these two intangibles are powerful forces within the loan process and often work in conjunction with each other to influence the numerous outcomes of a given loan.

Many of us are aware of this reality, and have even run into a scenario like: your best friend didn’t repay you back a large sum of money which ultimately ended your friendship. Or, in this same experience, the reverse is also true — a relationship falls apart while your significant other is indebted to you, so the chances of you seeing your money again are slim at best. Often times, because of these two factors, lenders who want to support and help their loved ones are left taking on a great level of risk, both financially and relationally.

Now what if I told you there are ways to combat, and maybe even prevent these struggles…

According to a Bankrate 2019 survey, statistics show that nearly 60% of Americans are benevolent lenders when asked to be. When it comes to helping out a friend or family member financially, 3 out of 5 people will sacrifice their own well being to help their loved ones in need. And as you might guess, about 35% of those compassionate supporters were negatively harmed in some way, albeit financial or relational. However, interestingly enough, a caveat exists within this world of lending and borrowing. An additional 35% of surveyors report having experienced no harm at all when it came to making a loan with someone they trust. Very few statistics exist as to what goes into a loan that yields only positive results, but when we think about human nature and an individual’s relationship with money, we can be sure of a couple of things.

Achieving a goal is more attainable when people are held accountable. Analogous to the world of interpersonal loans, when building a new business, entrepreneurs are 65% more likely to succeed in meeting aspirations for themselves when they designate a second or third party dedicated to holding them accountable to their own commitments. In thinking about your relationships and life experiences, we can all recall a time where we accomplished a great achievement and did so because we had a peer, organization, friend, family, or neighbor to hold us accountable over time. In the same way that these moments in our lives were made possible because of an increased sense of accountability, this phenomenon can also translate over to and influence the world of loans when dealing with people you trust.

Aside from the time and effort put into lending money to a loved one, what is the overall cost of making this kind of loan? Expenses to consider might include, legal fees and bookkeeping. Considering the time it might take you to educate yourself on the best lending practices or even the potential tax pitfalls of a new loan, you will have invested a significant amount of your well being into helping out your loved one in their time of need. Reducing all of these costs, whether directly or indirectly, is paramount to increasing the likelihood a loan being repaid. The ideal reality for the world of lending would include a free platform for Lenders to track their money given out, a manner for Lenders to easily protect their loan legally without incurring the costs of formal legal counsel, and a readily accessible source of information on how to best navigate the entire loan process. By creating this ecosystem of tools and resources, the overall cost of making a loan is greatly reduced and as a result of this reality, all parties involved can focus more on maintaining a healthy relationship and repaying their loan on time.

Even though it may seem impossible to create and manage a happy, healthy, and simple loan with your friends and family, there is light at the end of the tunnel. At Pigeon Loans, our easy to use online platform handles all of the little logistics that irritate and ultimately hinder relationships and the loan process as a whole. Our ecosystem, handles payments, reminders & notifications, complicated bank transfers, and the creation of contracts. At little to no cost at all to the Lender, the worry regarding whether or not their loved one will remember their next payment installment is nothing more than a thing of the past. Pigeon Loans acts as a third party, seeking to hold Borrowers accountable for their responsibilities, so Lenders don’t have to text, double text, or even call a forgetful family member about any money still owed. The key to navigating a loan successfully lies within the logistics, and using Pigeon Loans provides lenders with the most comprehensive solution to the pains of an interpersonal loan.

By adding an element of accountability and reducing the indirect and direct costs of making a loan with someone you trust, we believe only good can come out of your next act of financial kindness. So whether you just want to help out your friends, or whether you want to help someone grow their business, structuring and managing your loans through Pigeon Loans is a no brainer. Lenders all over the world are joining our platform each and every day, so why not you?

4 Tips To Successfully Navigating Loans with Friends & Family

A comprehensive guide on how to loan someone money, maintain your relationship, and get paid back - all while helping out someone you know and care about.

Pigeon Loans: A Flight Path for Lenders

Between mortgages, student debt, and credit card purchases, the average American is over $90,000 in debt. Being in debt is stressful. Between keeping up with monthly minimum payments, tracking rising interest rates, and protecting your credit score, it may seem like an impossible task to rid yourself of seemingly insurmountable debt.

Balance transfers and personal loans are two great options to consider when tackling debt or trying to avoid suffocating interest. Here’s why you might need each one: 

If you’re balancing multiple credit card accounts and want to focus on debt management, a balance transfer is a great option to consider (the best balance transfer scenario includes a promotional window with a low interest rate).


If you’re coming up against an uncommon but substantial expense, like a wedding or major home renovation project, a personal loan provides instant access to cash you can use as you see fit.

To understand which is best for you, let’s dive into balance transfers and personal loans a little more.

A balance transfer is a way to manage credit card debt. The goal of a balance transfer is to quickly pay off a balance, especially one that’s hit your credit limit, while avoiding interest. In some scenarios, transfers are made to take advantage of rewards offered by a new card company.

The balance transfer credit card process looks something like this:

A credit card holder with a balance on one or multiple cards seeks out a credit provider offering balance transfers.

They submit the required information to apply for a transfer.

If approved, they review the proposed terms.

Should they decide to move forward on a balance transfer offer, all necessary paperwork is completed.

The transfer takes place and any applicable balance transfer fees are applied to the account.

The new terms take effect and a payment schedule begins.

Balance transfers are an appealing approach to debt consolidation, especially to those stuck under high credit card interest rates. While there are certainly benefits to enjoy, there are also disadvantages to consider when transferring high-interest credit card debt to a new credit card.

The average credit card interest rate is 16.22%. In what is likely its most appealing benefit, many balance transfers offer a promotional window with a 0% interest rate, usually lasting between 12 and 24 months.

Not everyone transfers a balance solely for a low fixed interest rate. Some switch a card’s balance to a new credit provider offering better rewards or enhanced cash back programs. 

If you have more than one credit card, transferring multiple balances to a single account can simplify your personal finance and debt management plan.

If you’re unable to make your payments on time or pay off your entire balance before the introductory period closes, you could end up paying a higher interest rate than your original card included. You could also end up with more debt than you started with if you continue to charge purchases on transferred accounts.

Balance transfers can come at a price. Transfer fees can be as high as 5% of the total amount transferred. Additionally, your credit score can take a hit when applying for a transfer.

If your credit history is less than perfect, you may not be approved to transfer your entire balance. You may also be denied entirely.

This debt management approach isn’t right for everyone. But if you tick most of the boxes below, transferring or consolidating your credit card balances via a balance transfer could be a smart financial decision.

Have a credit card balance with difficult to manage payments and/or high interest rates 

Have good or excellent credit in order to to qualify for 0% interest promotional windows and voided balance transfer fees

Have a cash flow that matches proposed payment terms to ensure balance will be paid in full within promotional window

A personal loan is a one-time cash payment from a lender to a borrower. Terms vary by loan and borrowers may use the money for home renovations, to pay off debt, or for one-time expenses like vacations or weddings. Lenders can be banks, credit unions, or even a friend or family member. 

A personal loan process often looks like this:

Are you trying to manage credit card debt, or build your financial health overall? Learn how to choose between a balance transfer or personal loan.