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I received a Prosper Marketplace update via email. There were several interesting items, but it the last item stood out:

Legal Agreement Revisions
A minor change has been made to the following legal agreements, to clarify that selling or buying a recommendation or endorsement is not allowed. Please refer to the links below to view these changes.
Borrower Registration Agreement [PDF]
Lender Registration Agreement [PDF]
Group Leader Registration Agreement [PDF]

This portion of the update seems to directly target Read the rest of this entry »

A Penny Saved answered my questions about his Prosper Marketplace loan.

My major concerns were about home ownership terms and conditions and how quickly the loan would be paid back.

The question:

It says you are a home owner. Can you give the details of your loan (rate, term etc) and your current estimated equity situation in the home? Secondly, how soon do you plan to pay back the loan considering it is only for credit building?

The answer: Read the rest of this entry »

Rate Ladder is promoting a P2P loan from the blogger “The Penny Saved.”

See the loan request.

Honestly, the interest rate of 16% is rather poor considering that the Prosper lending guidance is a negative 18% due to the C credit rating.

Normally, I won’t even consider anything with a lending Read the rest of this entry »

This extends my posting on the blog roundup of Lending Club quiet period postings…

HollowOak asks: “How far behind is Prosper? Or do they get kudos for having started the SEC filing months ago?”

Lazy Man and Money is calling Lending Club dead:

I have been worked for a number of start-up companies and they had one thing in common - they are extremely fragile. A high percentage of new companies fail.. I’ve talked to a few other Lending Club members… and they said they are gone and never coming back. They feel their trust has been violated. With each day that Lending Club can’t or doesn’t say anything to justify this inactivity, the more trust is lost. I might be blowing this out of proportion, but I’d rather err to the side of being conservative until I have reason to believe otherwise.

LazyMan is correct that their inability to communicate this issue over the next few months (?) is going to hurt Lending Club. It was communicated poorly, so I can understand why many people must assume the worst.

ProsperousLand wondered why he took yesterday off in his catch up post today about Lending Club halting new lenders. Mike had posted previously about Prosper filing with the SEC. RateLadder also posted information on Prosper’s SEC filing. The key line from my perspective from the Prosper filing is: Read the rest of this entry »

I have already commented on Lending Club’s quiet period and referral program suspension. I decided to check other blogs to see what they have to say on the email notice that went out today. Since I was reading everything anyway, I decided to post links and a few quotes to everything that I could find using Google’s Blog Search for Lending Club.

Peer-Lend commented on the uncertainty of the meaning of the communication:

There has been a large amount of speculation recently in many corners that the P2P Lending models might be subject to some legal uncertainty regarding whether the loans should be classified as securities… The speculation has primarily been concerned with who, in fact, owns the loans (notes), and how exactly that ownership [is transferred]….

It is unclear whether LendingClub has ceased operations as a result of an SEC action or whether LendingClub has chosen to bite the bullet and submit to regulation voluntarily. This event could have major repercussions…

The g-spot posted:

My guess is their legal team is Read the rest of this entry »

Tom at Prosper Lending Review may have topped my compiled blogger advice for new lenders by posting advice from 11 people for someone considering peer lending. The person seeking advice is concerned about stock market returns and the low bond/CD rates and therefore is considering putting a 100K into P2P loans to earn 10%. To sum up my advice:

Read the rest of this entry »

My funds arrived to Prosper Marketplace a few days ago. I planned to jump into Prosper and start carefully selecting loans for funding. I browsed a few loans, but I have cold feet.

So I opened my blog to reflect…. Why am I nervous about bidding? I had no problem lending on Lending Club for a total of about $1,000 to date. So why is Prosper Marketplace different?

My trouble in starting to bid seems to come down to the openness of the market. That same openness is great for transparency. As I have read on other blogs, browsing P2P lending is voyeurism. I think it is a bit of Voyeurism and Exhibitionism.

Peer-to-Peer lending feels voyeuristic for several reasons:

• Many loans provide interesting, entertaining, or just odd stories.
• After browsing loans, you cannot help but to feel more secure in your own financial future because you had to read so many poor quality loans.
• It can be fun to pass judgment on others occasionally and with Prosper or Lending Club, you can decide who receives funding and who does not.
• Peer-to-Peer lending allows you to feel superior to others who are not as financially savvy. That is why most of them need the money.

Peer-to-Peer lending is great fun to view the financial lives of others. I like that part of the openness.

So what about the exhibitionism? Read the rest of this entry »

I participated in the second peer to peer lending carnival which is hosted at Brip Blap. There were too many good submissions to decide on a favorite post in this carnival, but I will post links and comments below to a few favorites. I submitted my article on Lending Club rejecting most loan applications.

Peer-Lend posted information on the new bidding guidance and interest rates. Moolanomy posted information about his second loan on Prosper. Prosper Lending Review interviewed the Fynanz CEO. (That one was interesting enough that I already blogged about it.) Rate Ladder updated the vintage curves.

WiseClerk make some P2P lending predictions for 2008. One of his predictions (listed at 75% probability) Read the rest of this entry »

Based upon my recent request, I received some useful advice from several P2P lending bloggers that I was grateful to receive before investing in my first loans with Lending Club. I am also excited to share this advice with other potential lenders. First, let me offer my own advice that I wrote on another site I just started - Five Prerequisite Investments to P2P Lending. I listed out the top five places you should put your money before even considering lending with Prosper or Lending Club.

Quick Tip: if you have not already signed up, use these links to Lending Club or Prosper for a free cash bonus upon account funding.

I received advice from the bloggers at Prosperous Land, Prosper Lending Review, Rate Ladder, Lazy Man and Money, and My Microfinance (link removed because website no longer available). So what advice did these bloggers have for newbie lenders?
Read the rest of this entry »

Stanley Bing at CNN Money blogged about the subprime lending crisis and the falling dollar in his article “Who’s to blame for the credit crisis, the housing slump, the weak dollar, and the fear of recession? It’s a guy named Leonard.”

Yes, Bing, you have me interested. Who the heck is Leonard and why is he responsible? Of course, I am expecting a tongue in check answer from you, but let’s find out… Who is this guy Leonard?

It’s clear this whole subprime mess is much worse than anybody anticipated. Things are crashing. Stuff is burning. The best and brightest minds are at work on how to solve this crisis before it sinks the global economy into a hopeless morass that will plague us all for decades. No, wait. They’re the ones who caused it… I believe it is our duty… to pinpoint blame.

Bing goes on to “interview” the former head of a bank, an investment bank board member and a quant who all send him on the search for Leonard Flanken. Bing happens by Flanken Read the rest of this entry »