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The first little bit of internet treasure we will talk about is 1. Prosper. If you are looking for a place to put your money, enjoy a little risk and possibly reap some reward then Prosper may just be the investment for you.
Prosper is an online community where people come together to lend money or find a loan.
I have been a member for a year and have made six times the interest my local credit union is paying. Basically you sign up for an account, transfer some money, peruse through hundreds of loan listings and bid on the ones you like. Prosper makes is so easy to find borrowers that match the criteria you prefer. From credit ratings to defaults you get it all. Once you find one you want to bid on, you can bid as small amount as $25 to a whopping $25,000 on the loan. If the borrower is wanting a loan for $10,000 and you bid $25 then another $9,975 worth of bidders has to be found. If they are found and if enough of them are in the interest rate range you initially bid, then you have your first loan.
It is not all glitz and glamor though. Not everyone will repay their loans. This is the part where you get to match wits with the banks. Can you pick out the lenders that will repay? Can you weed out the ones that are too risky? These are the questions you have to ask because people can and do lose money. I have two loans in my Prosper account that will probably default.
So if you think you can out smart the banker, risk a little money, and possibly Prosper in the meantime, then Prosper might be the investment for you.
Prosper is located at http://www.prosper.com
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2 responses so far ↓
1 MoneyEnergy // Jun 4, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Do you really think Prosper is still worth it? I haven’t tried it myself but I did read a post somewhere noting that someone was in doubt about it. I think it was the DINKS Finance team.
Prosper sounds too risky to me. What is in place to enforce the borrowers to pay it back?
2 Shawn // Jun 19, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Great point … I signed up with Prosper back in Jan 07. I put $1,000 in it made 14 loans ranging anywhere from $50 to $100. To date I have received $454 in principal and $144 in interest. I do however have 2 loans that look to default. There really is nothing more than hurting their credit that can be done in a default situation. I made sure to loan money only to those that appeared to care about their credit.
You are right, Prosper is not for everyone.
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