Thursday, August 09, 2007

Prosper

Borrow up to $25K. Rates as low as 7.00%.

I joined Prosper in March and have been lending money since then. Initially I thought the interest rates that people were paying were high and wasn't sure why anyone would borrow through Prosper. But when I began to compare these rates to the alternatives (credit cards, payday loans, etc.) I believe it actually can be a great deal for a borrower who has a few extremely high interest loans to pay off.

There are definitely risks. The company has only been doing these loans for about 1 1/2 years. Also I am concerned a little bit about people defaulting on loans a year or two down the road. It seems like people are more likely to be current on payments soon after they get the loan, but it might not be as big of a priority later on. To mitigate these concerns a bit I only invest a small portion of my income in Prosper loans on a regular basis. I've also tried to spread my risk by balancing loans with high interest and poor credit scores with ones with lower interest and great credit scores.

If you are looking for returns greater than 10% (my average so far is 16%) and want to potentially help other people out, you might want to check out Prosper.
And if you are looking to borrow money, this might be worth checking out as well.
Click here to join:
Earn Great Returns. $25 Sign-Up Bonus.

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