Prosper.com - Lending Money

[boosami]

Anyone seen Prosper.com? It's a "peer-to-peer" borrowing and lending community. Basically, you can invest as a partial/full lender in loans to prescreened individuals, and be paid at very competitive interest rates. It's all backed ultimately by a FDIC insured bank so technically you aren't a real lender so-to-speak. Note: the money you invest is not FDIC insured, but a collection agency will attempt to collect the funds just like in the case of default with a real creditor.

I signed up for a lender account just for fun, and am going to try it out. From what I've seen so far, it offers rates or return from 8-30% depending on the "risk" you take when lending (the borrowers credit score, basically).

I'm going to go for a moderately risky low-amount loan to start with. We'll see what happens!

Get a Personal Loan at a Great Rate! - Apply Online Today - Prosper

[sweeps]

Also see another thread: http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/i...er-update.html

[kork13]

I've heard of it before, but personally I'm wary.... I don't trust people enough to give them my money on the expectation that they'll pay me back. Heck, I would only loan a few select friends anything more than ~$20.

[rizzmo]

Since January I have lent $3,000 through prosper. I haven't had anyone default on their loan yet. I have heard that if borrowers are going to default on a loan, it usually happens later in the loan period. If you want you can look at my portfolio on lendingstats.com under rizzmo.

[pfblueprint]

I've heard of it before, but personally I'm wary.... I don't trust people enough to give them my money on the expectation that they'll pay me back. Heck, I would only loan a few select friends anything more than ~$20.

The idea behind the site is that you can spread out your risk and lend all of your friends $1, rather than one friend $20. I've never done it but it seems like a decent idea now with the market as volatile as it is.