Prosper.com person-to-person lending

[DRILLINDK]

Anyone care to update their experience as a lender with Prosper?

[jtr8178]

I did a $14,000 @ 9.3% (I am rated AA on Prosper.com) loan through Prosper.com to refinance a bunch of credit card debt and finish up a home remodel project (The last project I needed to get done in the house so that I can sell it!). It worked well as a borrower, as I preferred it from going to my bank.

I think the article that Slug posted hit the nail on the head -- Slam all of your money into a couple very low risk people to get the best return. Don't be tempted by the 20%+ returns.

I think that once Prosper.com starts to get repeat customers with history on the site it will do much better. Who wouldn't have wanted to make almost guaranteed 9% off of me over 3 years? I did this loan last year, and now I'm at the point where I'm down to my last 2 debts -- This one and a student loan... So I'll probably pay this one off before it is due.

[DRILLINDK]

Originally Posted by jtr8178

I did a $14,000 @ 9.3% (I am rated AA on Prosper.com) loan through Prosper.com to refinance a bunch of credit card debt and finish up a home remodel project (The last project I needed to get done in the house so that I can sell it!). It worked well as a borrower, as I preferred it from going to my bank.

I think the article that Slug posted hit the nail on the head -- Slam all of your money into a couple very low risk people to get the best return. Don't be tempted by the 20%+ returns.

I think that once Prosper.com starts to get repeat customers with history on the site it will do much better. Who wouldn't have wanted to make almost guaranteed 9% off of me over 3 years? I did this loan last year, and now I'm at the point where I'm down to my last 2 debts -- This one and a student loan... So I'll probably pay this one off before it is due.

I think they take a few percentages of the total interest rate for themselves. But, I'm glad to hear you had a positive experience. I'm still on the sidelines as I've heard too many negative stories about being a lender.

[chasingbread]

Originally Posted by DRILLINDK

Anyone care to update their experience as a lender with Prosper?

I have been lending on Prosper since April 2010. I have had am amazing experience and amazing returns. I am a big fan of peer to peer lending and like the above blog mentions...diversifying too much may hurt you in this investment model.

[chasingbread]

Originally Posted by DRILLINDK

Anyone care to update their experience as a lender with Prosper?

After 18 months or so, I have a 20% ROI on Prosper. I made some rookie mistakes at first, but even so, I continue to maintain a double digit ROI which my stocks have not been able to produce for quite some time.

Prosper has seen some crazy growth, and this is good news for us investors because we have huge pool of borrowers to choose from. You got plenty of low, moderate, and high risk loans to invest in.

I recommend you google sociallending dot net. A good blog I ran across that updated weekly about p2p lending.

youtube FOX NEWS Covers P2P Lending Growth
and
youtube Prosper CEO, Chris Larsen, on FOX Business News to discuss Prosper's 370% growth

to see its growth.

I am a big fan of p2p (obviously) because of the returns, and the ability to kick it to the banks by gaining the interest instead of them.

[Nika]

I've just been reading some loan requests. They are fascinating!

I keep thinking things like "if you have a D credit rating, live rent free and yet have $18,000 of cc debt, do you really think it is a great idea to borrow another $10,000 at 26% interest to help pay for your wedding?!

but the loan was 99% funded when I looked, so go figure.

[chasingbread]

Originally Posted by Nika

I've just been reading some loan requests. They are fascinating!

I keep thinking things like "if you have a D credit rating, live rent free and yet have $18,000 of cc debt, do you really think it is a great idea to borrow another $10,000 at 26% interest to help pay for your wedding?!

but the loan was 99% funded when I looked, so go figure.

Nika,

Haha, yes, without a doubt, some loans are questionable. A lot of people do not like to put in the time it takes to review each listing and use the quick invest option. You set a criteria and basically it invests the amount your set automatically. It is the easiest way to diversify quickly, but IMO not the safest.

My favorite loans so far are the "repeat borrowers". People who have borrowed thousands through the website and have faithfully paid all of it back and come back to borrow for a different reason. You can search for those through the advanced search.

google lendstats
it has a TON of statistics on which loans perform the best among many other things.