How a tanda works, and how to organize one fairly
A tanda is a rotating savings group common in Mexico and among Mexican and Central American communities in the United States. In northern Mexico it is often called a cundina. Each member pays the same amount every week or every fortnight, and each period one member receives the full pot, until everyone has had their turn.
In English, a tanda is a rotating savings club, also called a money circle or savings circle. The Spanish word tanda means a turn or a batch, which is how it works: members take turns receiving the pot.
There is no interest. Whoever gets an early número (turn) gets money up front and pays it back through their contributions; whoever gets a late número is simply saving. Tandas are used for rent, a car, school costs, a quinceañera or starting a small business.
How does a tanda work?
- An organizer invites members, usually relatives, neighbours or co-workers, and sets the amount, the frequency (often weekly or every quincena) and the number of turns.
- Each member gets a número, which decides when they receive the pot.
- Every period each member pays the organizer, in cash or by bank transfer.
- The organizer gives the whole pot to that period’s número, and the tanda ends when every número has been paid.
How are the números assigned?
Many tandas draw números by lottery. In others, members ask for the número they need, and early números go to people with an urgent expense. Some organizers keep the first número for themselves in return for running the tanda. The fair way is to agree the method before anyone pays, and to write down who has which número.
What goes wrong in a tanda?
- Someone disappears after receiving their pot. The later números lose out, so organizers only invite people they trust.
- Late payments delay the next payout and put pressure on the organizer to cover the difference.
- Disagreement about who paid. With a notebook or a chat thread, it is hard to prove a payment months later.
How do you run a tanda with Savings Circle?
- Create the group. Choose “tanda” as its name type, then set the currency and what each person pays per round. The app uses your word on every screen and reminder.
- Add members from your contacts. They don’t install anything.
- Set the order. Run a random draw in front of everyone, or enter the order you agreed. A random draw saves its seed, so anyone can check later that it wasn’t changed. Members can ask to swap turns, and the swap is recorded too.
- Record payments as they come in, by cash, bank or mobile wallet, with a screenshot as proof if you like. It works offline and syncs later.
- Remind the late ones. One tap opens WhatsApp, SMS or Telegram with a polite message in their language.
- Record each payout. Every entry is dated. A correction is added as a new entry, and the original stays in the history.
Savings Circle never holds or moves money. Members pay each other the way they already do; the app is the shared record of who paid, who is next and what is owed.
Other names for the same idea
In Mexico it is a tanda or cundina. Elsewhere the same system is a committee in Pakistan and India, a susu in Ghana, a chama in Kenya, an arisan in Indonesia and a paluwagan in the Philippines; in the US it is also called a lending circle. Economists call all of these rotating savings and credit associations, or ROSCAs. Savings Circle works for any of them.
Read this guide in other languages: ¿Qué es una tanda y cómo funciona? and cómo hacer una tanda de dinero (Spanish), or tanda là gì (Vietnamese).
Guides
- South Asia: committee, kameti, chit fund, bhishi, kitty party and samity
- Africa: susu, chama, ajo, adashe, equb, hagbad, stokvel, tontine, mukando and chilimba
- The Americas and the Caribbean: sou-sou, tanda, junta, lending circle and pardner
- Asia and the Pacific: arisan, paluwagan and hụi
- The Arab world: jam’iya