I decided to give it a shot to try to reduce our interest rates. It worked. Thirteen lenders bid on my $3,500 loan request and they reduced my interest rate from 13% to 9.9%. Another note about Prosper loans - they have a fixed interest rate! No more worrying about that interest rate magically increasing.
See, she used her Prosper loan to pay offer her credit card, swapping her interest rate for a lower, locked-in one. This can be a good tactic for the indebted to use, especially since credit card companies have become much more reluctant to reduce interest rates (and, in fact, for some time, many have been boosting interest rates on perfectly good accounts).
Seven Things We Did to Slash Our Finance Charges from $400/month to $0/month [Blogging Away Debt]
Prosper.com [Official Site]
PREVIOUSLY: Make And Take Person To Person Loans With Prosper
@frodo_35:
That (community shame) is a key portion of the business model of many 3rd world microlenders like Grameen. In many cases, other people in your village are, in essence, jointly liable for your loan, so you're ripping off your neighbors if you don't pay up.
]]>This sounds like it could be a good idea at the community level. You could also know the people and meet them face to face. Think about it 10 people that want to help their neighbors and make a little money. The community shame could be a big factor in them paying back.
]]>The bright spot seems to be on Lending Club (approved by the SEC), and Kiva (doing good by helping people in third world countries). I'm sticking with these 2 for now.
]]>^^^^ johnfrombrooklyn means prospers.org, not prosper.org.
]]>@kwsventures: High risk, but high return also if it pans out.
]]>Argh! No mortgage refinance options.
]]>@MeSoHornsby: I would too!
]]>@OggJoshua: You sure can! Prosper reports to credit bureaus just like any other lender does. So, if you want, you can also use Prosper to destroy your credit.
]]>Remember a little obscure company called Ebay ? Remember how they started up as a darn good idea that got hijacked by :
1) Crooks ,scam artists and third world thieves.
2) The accountants.
I see Prosper as somewhat the same thing. Great in concept , but really prone to abuse. Predatory borrowers (as well as identity thieves) could overwhelm the honest or naieve people when they start passing their secrets around.Can Prosper enforce these arrangements between borrowers ? To go back to the Ebay story, one thing that is killing their core business is taking a "see no evil,hear no evil " attitude toward bad sellers and scamming buyers.As long as the ever increasing fees are paid, they just look the other way.
I like Posper in theory,but these are things that concern me.
Just my two cents...
]]>I'm a small loaner on Prosper. I tried to apply for an account. Apparently my credit score was so high, that they referred me to a credit union, saying that prosper wasn't the best place for me.
Since then, I've been wary on the people I give loans to.
]]>Does anyone have any experience in the lending department of prosper? Are you protected from deadbeats?
]]>Prosper sounds great from a borrower's point of view, but I can't really see why anyone would want to lend through it. Why would I want to loan the OP money at 10% when credit card companies, with diversified portfolios, strong credit scoring models, and extensive collection infrastructures are asking 13.5%? Seems to me that the lenders there are very exposed to the winner's curse.
]]>It's still too early to say if they will emerge out the other side, and if so, in what condition, but I think that this article probably would have been better held until they came out.
]]>Anyone want to read the paper I wrote on Prosper for my Financial Institutions course? I got an A on it.
]]>