The "savings club" mentioned is known in Mexico (and possibly elsewhere in Latin America and among Latin American immigrants in the states) as a "tanda". The o

The "savings club" mentioned is known in Mexico (and possibly elsewhere in Latin America and among Latin American immigrants in the states) as a "tanda". The one I participated in (against my better judgement -- my wife signed us up as a favor to someone we know who was organizing it) was run with eleven participants, and lasted one cycle. I paid MXN$200 every week and expected to get MXN$2000 towards the end of the cycle. I think this arrangement was fairly typical. Of course, the further back in the queue you are, the bigger the risk that others will drop out before it's your turn for your payout. From the outset, that seemed like a likely outcome to me, and it is indeed what happened. As a reasonably well off expat, MXN$2000 wasn't a big deal to me (what is a big deal is the lack of trust experiences like mine breed). However, since it is a lot of money to many people, there's probably money to be made offering what tandas do, and even paying a small amount of interest, without such risk being borne by the participants.