September 5th, 2009
There are now nineteen live listings on WikiLoan.com. Not surprisingly, none of the listings have been issued funds from a lender. The borrowers are asking for outrages interest rates based on their credit ratings. There are borrowers asking for 4% interest rates for their unsecured loans! Most of the listings have F ratings (scores between 0-599) and are asking for rates under 10%.
I can’t blame the lenders for avoiding this site for now. WikiLoan should advise their borrowers of reasonable rates based on their credit scores. LendingClub sets the rates, and prosper shows lenders how likely their loan will be funded for a range of rates.
November 30th, 2008
Loanio.com has entered a quiet period as they begin the registration of promissory notes. Well.. at least it isn’t floating alone as it shares the boat with Prosper.com. Lendingclub.com finished the process earlier this year and is free sailing.
The thing that I have a hard time understanding is why Loanio even opened their doors for business. They delayed the grand opening multiple times… opened shop… just to close it two months later. Hopefully while they stand idle, they get licensing for more states. I figure if you’re going to have a grand.. grand.. reopening, truly have “Peer Lending For Everyone”. Good Luck Loanio.com!
“Loanio, Inc. has suspended its business activities so that we may begin the process of registering our promissory notes with the appropriate securities authorities. Please be advised that effective immediately, Loanio will no longer be accepting registration from lenders or borrowers or accepting new loan requests until further notice. We appreciate your understanding and patience during this “quiet period” and hope to reopen for business as soon as possible.
During this period we will not be responding to press, blogs, or other member inquiries specifically related to the suspension of business. However, if you have questions related to your account, loans, or any other related issues, you may contact us, as always, by logging into your account and creating a customer support ticket. ” Loanio.com
November 26th, 2008
LendingClub.com announced today that they will be raising interest rates, processing fee, and the minimum fico score requirement for borrowers.
-Interest rates will be raised by .75% ranging from 6.69% – 19.37%.
-Processing Fee will be raised by .75% for borrowers.
-Minimum fico score for borrowers is now 660.
This change will not effect lenders and only create larger returns on the investment. Here’s the original announcement:
“Hope all is well. There are a few changes becoming effective today that matter to you as a lender:
Minimum FICO score raised to 660
As the economy continues to slow down and create additional risks in the lower FICO bands, we are tightening our credit policy. To ensure a higher quality of loan applications is available to you as a lender, we are raising the minimum FICO score to 660. Simultaneously, we are increasing our marketing spend on qualified lead generation channels to ensure a sustained flow of borrower applications with no decrease in the quantity of applications available on the site.
Interest rate increase by 0.75%, taking the average rate to 13.80%
In response to the same market conditions, we have increased our base rate by 0.75% for all grades other than A, by 0.25% for A4 and A5 grades and left it unchanged for A1-A3 loans. Interest rates, after deducting our service charge of 1%, now vary from 6.69% to 19.37% with an average of 13.80%.
Note that we are also increasing the processing fees charged to borrowers by an average of 0.75%. The additional revenue will fuel continued investments in Website development, collections and loan servicing, and general operations.” LendingClub.com
E.M
October 30th, 2008
I havn’t fully used the tools available through lendingclub.com. However, I did go through the process of acquiring a loan.
The Pluses:
- The application process was a breeze.
- Direct deposit into checking and direct withdrawal of payments from same account.
- Interest rate was very good compared to other unsecured loans.
- The funding process was fast, easy and efficient.
- Privacy was very good and kept your face and information away from the internet world.
- Only lending users can view your profile!
- They set your interest rate – can be positive and negative. The positive side is that borrowers aren’t being stupid and asking for loans at 30% or higher as seen on other peer lending sites.
- The loan has never shown up on Experian ( it has been over a year) . This is great for people wanting to consolidate debt. Your credit score rises as you use the loan to pay off credit cards and your debt to income percent falls.
The downers
- Can’t set your own interest rate. Like above, this is a good thing for people desperate for money and asking for unreasonable interest rates. However, in other peer lending sites if you can plead a good case and show that you are a responsible borrower, lower rates are possible.
- Must be registered as a borrower or lender. This is a pain for when I try to do reviews for both the lending and borrowing side. I will have to resubmit a new application under a different email in order to become a lender. Many users of p2p lending sites borrow loans at very low rates and re-invest them to other members to make a profit. LendingClub’s registration process will make re-investing borrowed loans a tad trickier.
LendinClub.com has passed my test with flying colors for the borrowing aspect of their site. Later, I’ll post a review on how I feel about the investing portion.
E.M.
