Prosper

[redsage]

I just found http://www.prosper.com and wanted to share it with my friends. It's a person to person loan facilitator.

Say I want to borrow $5k. I can put up a listing there asking for the money and explaining my financial situation. According to my FICO score, they'll give me a grade of AA-E and HR (high risk), which will determine my interest rate. Then other people can bid to lend me money - as little as $50 per person. I'll just have one monthly payment to Prosper, who will then divide it up to the people who lent me money. They get to keep most of my interest, so they make some spare cash, and I get a loan at somewhat lower rates than I could get somewhere else.

Anyways, I'm kind of excited about it. Don't mean to spam, but I wanted to share because I really like the idea of the empowerment that comes with person to person lending.

Comments

[arethinn]

So as far as I can tell, the lenders remain anonymous to the borrowers because Prosper is acting as a "broker"?

[tyrsalvia.livejournal.com]

Yes.

I am looking at getting a fairly small loan from them to help improve my credit, but then I also want to lend maybe $50 a month or something. It's a fairly minor income, but a little extra cash sounds good.

[arethinn]

*wiggle* I like giving/loaning (... I can't think of a time I've expected repayment, but you get the idea) money to people, but charities are a little too impersonal and uncertain, and giving it directly to friends (tho I've done it) is a little weird.

[tyrsalvia.livejournal.com]

Well, cool. You might like this place, then.