Life Corner with Luis Disla
Luis Disla is a Lyft / Uber driver who crowdfunded a loan to finance his car. We caught up with Luis to talk about life as a driver, the real costs of renting, and his experience with WeFinance.
Life Career Corner with WeFinance is a regular series that looks at unexpected (or expected) life experiences and how people have adjusted around them.
How long have you been a Lyft / Uber driver for and what’s been your experience?
I’ve been a Lyft driver for about a year now and I started driving for Uber about 5 months ago. It’s great working for these companies because you’re always meeting new people and you get to learn about their different backgrounds. It’s a great opportunity to connect with different people on a daily basis.
Do you have any tips for someone looking to be a Lyft / Uber driver?
Start owning your own car - don’t rent! Renting is one of those things where you will struggle less initially but put you in a worse position in the long-term. I’m currently paying weekly for a rental car and a monthly plan would work out better because at the end of the day if you’re leasing from a dealership, you’re paying anywhere from about $400 a month with insurance which is about $300, instead of $1,800 a month which makes a big difference.
You mentioned $450 a week for car rentals. What service were you using? Why do you think it’s important to own your car rather than rent it?
I’m currently renting through an independent company where the cars are anywhere from $380 - $450 a week. It’s important to own your car because you will have a lot more freedom for yourself and what you make is yours, you won’t have to work extra hours or days to pay back the rental cost. For example, if you make $1000 a week, half of that goes towards the car rental so you’re left with $500 which I don’t think you can survive off of.
What’s your favorite part of being a Lyft / Uber driver?
I love meeting the different passengers. With Lyft, you meet so many positive people who come in the car and strike up conversation. They tell you about their day and it actually uplifts your spirit a little bit. My day is uplifted by the different people that I meet. For some reason, nobody ever gets in your car mad or in a bad mood. It’s fun when there’s always a new person in your car because you get to talk about different things.
How’s the flexibility of being a rideshare driver?
In order to have full flexibility, you need to own your own car. If you don’t, you’re working 14 hours a day to pay off a lease. If you own your own car though, you’ll be able to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and have free time to pursue other things. For example in my case, I want to open up a fast food restaurant which is one of the reasons I quit my previous job and decided to drive.
What was your experience with WeFinance?
WeFinance has been a great experience. I’ve tried other crowdfunding sites and it was difficult to get my listing going, but WeFinance helped me promote my listing on social media which I think really helped. I actually got funded which I didn’t think was going to be possible.
Why did you choose WeFinance over other loan options?
Other companies require a credit check, with WeFinance it’s more about trust — it’s about your story and people connecting with you.
How will WeFinance make your life better?
It’s making my life better already because without WeFinance it would’ve taken me a lot longer to come up with the money. Again, renting a car was bringing me to give up half of everything I was making. WeFinance has helped in a huge way because now I have the money to own a car. Plus, being able to choose your interest rate and term length is a huge help.
Any tips or tricks on creating a campaign?
I just found out the other day how to use hashtags and that was really helpful. Try to use hashtags, tweet, post on Facebook - basically just talk to as many people as possible.
