Has anyone either taken out a loan or invested in a p2p lender such as Lending Club or Prosper? I've just stumbled across this and find it fascinating. I'm thinking of sending one of my IRA accounts over there. Anyone have experience?
it is fascinating I have studied it somewhat in a class of mine in the recent past, but i never had real world experience with it.
At least that means I'm not the only one that thinks it's cool. I'm trying to figure it all out right now. It seems like if you come up with a good strategy and put the time in, you should be able to make 8%.
In lending club, no one with 800 notes has lost money. That's pretty amazing. so you can just set a lending criteria and if you can get 800 notes, it would be tough to lose money. In fact 93.8% of folks in 800 notes or more have made better than 6%. I like those odds especially considering in a bank, you get less than 1%. https://www.lendingclub.com/info/statistics.action
and think about the integrity it brings to finance, you arent shorting your own viability to make money.
Sounds intriguing. Can you give me an overview of the concept until I have a chance to research on my own?
Basically the two main players are lending club and prosper. Essentially, if you need money to buy a car, start a business, consolidate debt, etc, they will score you and put your profile and loan request online. People can then offer to lend you the money at predetermined interest rates. So if you had 5 grand to invest, you could lend $25 to 200 different people. The loans are either 3 or 5 years I believe and you can track your account. Basically you're a little bank. The website handles all payments, processing, and collections. They have stats as to their lending history. On the flip side, you can apply for a loan this way and potentially get cash within 4-5 days of completing your application. They are stringent on debt to income ratios, credit scores, and credit history.
i dunno what this is, but my hope is that somebody smart like supafan will let us know that it is a worthless scam
It all seems fairly complicated which I hate in an investment. I don't understand the risks very well. ATT and Verizon have posted yields between 5% and 7% the last couple of years. Not a bad place to park some cash. Big companies, not going anywhere, steady dividends, and a chance to make some profit on growth as well.
