Apr 15, 2007

Become a loan shark!

Aiight, this is a bit late but I thought I pass the idea to you before I head off to sleep since I thought it's pretty cool.

Have you ever heard about the idea of internet loaning? I have been involved with this company for about a month already and I have to say it's a pretty rewarding and easy experience overall. The web site that I will be introducing you about today is called Prosper.com. What's interesting about this site is that it opens the door for common people like us to provide loans to others. You can look at it as a loan between one another.


I think it's a pretty great site and I believe it has definitely a lot of upward potential to go. If you pay attention to the news, you will find out that most of the big financial lenders are all heading for bankrupcy which includes New Century financial being one of the biggest one that's filing for chapter 11 recently. For those of us that has some extra cash to spare, it simply means big opportunity to earn additional income. As I look at it, the interest rate are currently steady but I do believe that it will continue to rise in the long hall and more owners will be hit with some major interests with their mortgage. With that said, I do believe and forsee a huge market of borrowers that will emerge in the near future. With all the info I've mentioned, I'm a pretty firm believer and I am already jump into the band wagon and hopefully you'll find it to be useful as well.

If you have some money in the bank, you would know that your interest is going a little bit above 5% annually on the highest paying interest over the net. Common banks like Washington Mutual, Bank of America, Citi Bank just pays literally nothing in terms of interest. So if you were looking into just saving through banks, you're best looking at 5% and that's about it.

What Prosper.com is about providing an opportunity for us as common folks to lend to other people who needs loans. The cool thing about this site is that you get to see the credit history of the person you are planning to provide a loan as well as their income level, payment, etc. You will then get an opportunity to "make" a bid toward the individual, a style similar to E-Bay. As you have finished winning the bid, Prosper.com then automatically transfers your funds toward the other individual after certain security and verifications from their end. Prosper.com also provides a third party collection's agency to ensure that as a lender you do get your funds monthly as another security measure to scams. Now as we all undersatnd, anyone with a good credit score can always turn bad and the other way around so you do have to do your research and ask questions before you decide to bid.

Now, before jumping into loans right away I think there are a few things we need to first pay attention to which I have circled to explain to you below:






First: We need to understand the loan time frame - I think this is an area very easily overlooked. If you are looking to get a quick buck, obviously if the time frame for the loan is a bit long..that's probably not for you.

Second: Interest rate level - This is the cool part, the interest rate level from tops I've seen is close to 20% on people with horrible credit score. People with good credit score the interest is a bit lower and it usually lies to at its lowest being 7% annually.

Thired: Payment method - The bank will deduct automatically from the person seeking a loan from you from their work so this is a pretty sweet function. It gets rid of the headache of you having to call them every month to ask for payment, etc.

All in all, I think Propser.com does have a creative idea which I do believe will succeed. Do becareful though as in every profession, there are scam artist. However, if you do your fair of research first I believe it is a realistic belief to obtain a steady 9% or more in interest yearly. I would recommend small investments first to test it out before jumping in full blown. Good luck! :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I first thought it was "loan shark". :D

prosperousPFstrategies said...

Hi, I have been lending on prosper for over a year.

Your 9% ROI expectation seems pretty optomistic (though not impossible)

Please see my post: http://prosperouspfstrategies.blogspot.com/2007/04/can-i-make-money-on-prospercom.html

which shows how lenders have done on Prosper so far. You might be surprised... :)

Swapw said...

Thank you for the comment, I will definitely check them out. :)
-Swapw