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.
August 31st, 2009
Ok… after a great summer with lots of fishing and camping, I am finally updating status of prosper to live. I know I’m clearly behind on their reopening but I have kept my eye on their progress the past few months. After watching a commercial today on CNBC promoting their newly reopenend site, I decided its time to update this site.
Personally, I’ve always felt prosper was an investors haven. Their rates are considerably higher than the competition leading to better returns. However, if you’re a borrower, look out! I’ve invested with prosper with great success and have tried their borrowing side. Borrowing was a disaster. First of all their credit scoring is a mystery. The past two reports prosper pulled gave me a D score and an AA score with no change on my experian credit report. The AA Score allowed me to borrow at a great 5.89% which is slightly higher than my credit union. However, with the D score I received the first attempt, I was looking at a rate of 19.99% which I would not even attempt a test run with.
The site is once again friendly and easy to use for both investors and borrowers. My suggestion with the re-release of prosper to borrowers is to keep trying a new credit pull each month (THEY DO NOT MAKE HARD HITS ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT. THIS WILL NOT AFFECT YOUR CREDIT SCORE). If you are shocked by a low credit rating, don’t attempt to receive a loan with a high interest rate. Peer lending is a fun new innovation, but be smart and don’t get stuck with an interst rate higher than your local banks. Try again next month and see if your credit rating jumps like mine did from D- AA. I can’t explain the difference but can tell you the difference between 19.99 to 5.89 was considerable.
Welcome back prosper!
October 19th, 2008
Prosper is now in a “quiet period” as it registers for appropriate securities authorities. LendingClub went off line for a good period of time for a similar registration process. I like how the news is a discreet broadcast on their site. All you can find is a tiny announcement saying “lender activity limited”. If you are borrowing you are referred to a cheesy looking site called Freedom Financial Network. Here is the announcement when you finally find it:
“Prosper Filing Registration Statement; Enters Quiet Period
Prosper has started a process to register, with the appropriate securities authorities, promissory notes that may be offered and sold to lenders through our site in the future.
The registration filing is a necessary step toward making the secondary lending market available to the community. This is something many of you have been asking for, and we believe the liquidity of a secondary market will make Prosper even more vibrant.
Until we complete the registration process, we will not accept new lender registrations or allow new commitments from existing lenders. If you’re an existing lender, your current lender agreements will be unaffected; your existing loans will continue to be serviced; you’ll be able to track and monitor your loans; and you’ll be able to withdraw funds from your Prosper account.
If you’re a borrower with an existing loan, you will continue with your current borrower agreement and be unaffected by the registration process. If you’re a borrower seeking a loan, you will still be able to create a new loan listing, which we will endeavor to fulfill through alternative sources.
A successful registration can take several months, but we assure you we will do our best to move forward as quickly as possible. Until this process is complete, we’re required to be in a quiet period and will be unable to respond to press, blogger or other inquiries about Prosper or the registration filing until it becomes effective.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and want to thank you in advance for your understanding and support.”
We hope to see you return Prosper… Good luck…lend
