Who's On Prosper?
 

Right now I am looking for a $5k loan. But it looks like once a few things are handled I may be interested in becoming a lender.

Anyone using them a lot as a lender, or borrower?

:helpme

http://prosper.com/

I'm there as a lender. Have been since May. Doing OK. Not great, but still a tad better than if the money was in a MM. I'm just reloaning my payments now - haven't made any other transactions into my account.

I'm headed to San Franscisco in Feb for their "Prosper Days". The biggest issue I have with them is their collections process.

Sounds like you are doing ok with them.

The only other person I recall mentioning Prosper on here is Trey (pimpdog).

:upsidedow

Yeah, Trey managed to piss them off the first day, lol. I saw him bid quite a bit at first but to be honest, I haven't been reading the bidder lists recently.

I have about 250 loans out with 9 that are 3+ months late where I SUPPOSE they are trying to collect on, but I see no proof of it.

Oh I see!!

So how does Prosper "collect"? Just fuck up your Experian credit score?

:warning

They supposedly have some collection agencies working on their behalf. Penncro seems to the one on most of my lates.

My very first late is from a guy who had a B credit rating who freaking lives in my little town. If Prosper would give me some info, I'd collect on my own :thumbsup

If you decide to be a borrower, LMK via ICQ and I'll put a bid in :) I know I can raze you here if you don't pay, lol.

Also, here's a link to their message board: http://prosper.spreebb.com/

I'd spend a week or so perusing that to get the feel of it.

Didn't you say few months earlier that you are breaking even? Things have improved a bit, just had a slow start?

Yeah, I started staying away from the HR with the higher interest rates and sticking more with C's with less high, but still high, rates. Though the B dude who's owed me the longest is still proof not all the ratings work. Plus as I put more in (I've got about another $4K in that was in payments) it's evened out with more accounts. I was also basing it on NONE of the lates ever paying and I've seen some come through.

Here are my current stats as far as loans:
Active loans: 273
Payment status:
241: Current
11 Paid
1: Payoff in progress
10: Late (<15d)
3: Late
5: 1 month late
4: 2 months late
9: 3+ months late

My average interest rate for ALL loans is 19.26% but that includes the lates AND the payoffs where I obviously didn't get much interest on a 2-3 month loan :winkwink:

It's an interesting process and I'm learning a lot. I'm hoping the meeting in Feb will be educational as far as collections, verifications, and their long term intentions. I call it Internet Vegas :thumbsup

Read into it, but never followed it through.

I am a lender. IF you have any questions let me know.

I lend some money there. not a lot yet, only a couple thousand. Ive only been on the site a couple months. I love the concept. It will be huge in years to come.

I laugh my ass off at how many people have BAD credit but look for loans with like 5% interest.

It mainly comes down to your credit rating and debt to income ratio. People explain what they want to use the money for, but people can lie so I don't put much weight on what they want to do with it. What I look for is someone with a B - C credit score, typically people with a decent amount of credit, a little higher then most debt to income ratio, but with either no delinquences or only 1 or 2 in the last 6 years. This should put them in the 14 - 18% interest range with only a 2 - 4% of default (risk) for me. I like to get this kind of return on my money and comfortable with t he risk. The longer their credit has been established the better. someone that shows 2004 as their first credit activity tells me it is kid and even if they haven't any delinquences in the last 2 - 3 years, that doesn't mean too much if they haven't had any big loans etc... Million things to look into from a lenders point of view.

I think he got banned for life from the site because he made a post on their board, something to the effect " how you fuckers doing".

Some people will never make it in the '" real world".

I learned about prosper from a thread that trey and I think it was peaches were talking about it.

It is one of the best Ideas I have seen someone come up with and execute in a long time. I see this one up their with ebay, pay pal, etc.. just give it a few more years.

I would be curious how many of your 3+ lates were people with HR rating. I know you said one guy was a B, but that is very uncommon. People with B rating defaulting is what like 3 - 4% ?

I never lend to A, they almost always get their loans under 10%. I never lend to HR, and would maybe consider to a D, in a rare case. I like to stick to the B and C and in the 14 - 18% interest range.

Here are my 3 months+ lates in order of how late they are (first being the oldest):
B
HR (but with a DTI of 3%)
E
HR (again, DTI of 7%)
HR
HR (DTI of 3% - this is the ONLY one of the 9 who has ever attempted a payment)
HR with 3% DTI
HR
C

I admit I got greedy and did a free for all at the beginning with the HRs with really high rates. I've been sticking to Bs and Cs and like you, an occasional D. I've hit a few A and AA if the interest rate is higher than 10% but I think the absolute lowest bid I've ever made was a 9% on an AA.

What amazes me is that out of my 3+ months late ONLY ONE has even made one measly payment.

One thing I'd also like to discuss with Prosper is the possibility to have shorter term loans. 1-2 years.

I've talked to many friends about it and always give the same advice as I with Vegas - don't put in more than you're prepared to lose :thumbsup

Well flip me $5k at 24%:winkwink: .

I can either have you paid off early, or let it go term.

Well it sounds like if they can resolve the collection part, then the site will be even MORE successful. Once I get a few things handled over the next few months. I may look at doing some small lending to start out and test the waters. I will have some disposable income, and if the return's good. It may be something I pursue on a larger scale.

Thanks for the bump, bid and help Peachy tootsies.

Much appreciated.

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

No problem - glad to help! And I'll be more than happy to rebid if it comes to that. :)

So out of 273 loans only 9 are 3+ months late and of those 9, six of them are HR. I would say you are not doing bad at all. Sounds like you did a lot of HR loans so I am sure you have a good bit of them that are doing ok as well.

When i see someone with bad credit that is a HR I see someone with nothing to lose. Their credit is already messed up, so what incentive do they have to pay off this loan if they hit hard times again. Especially the one who are saying " trying to give it one more try' or "trying to repair credit" etc.. people who have shown once before they messed up and ruined their credit. Now they have nothing to ruin (it is already messed up), so even easier for them to just say fuck it and not pay the loan. I know this is not true in all cases and some people do turn it around, take advantage of a second chance etc.. but I personally prefer to invest my money and not gamble. I think that HR is a gamble, A,B is an investment, and C,D is an investment with a higher risk.

I think we both agree on the sweet spot, the person with the B,C rating that you can get 14 - 18% return on your money.

Thank you my lovely. :thumbsup

You've been most helpful. If I can ever do anything for you, let me know. :)

Also, much thanks to What'cha talkin about WILLis (Will76) for his input as well.

Much appreciated pal.

:)

Exactly. I had 9 pending review and 2 just got canceled, so it DOES seem that they are doing a better job of checking out the documents to make sure you're who you say you are when you borrow.

OTOH, there are posts in the message section where people have faxed, faxed, and refaxed documents and finally gave up.

Another thing on my list for the Feb. meeting :thumbsup

Is there a good tutorial out there? I have money to invest just need a good guide :)

For Prosper or in general? For Prosper, I'd check the site out (there are tons of FAQs) and read the message board I pointed out previously.

As far as telling you how to invest your money, there are SO many different factors (your age, where you live, what you want your ROI to be, etc.) that tutorials don't really help. Everything I've learned has been through trial and error. I lost tens of thousands in the stock market due to my stupidity (started selling like crazy as soon as things started to drop) but OTOH, I've done well in real estate - probably purely through luck and where I live :)

Thanks, I ment on prosper :) Where I live the real estate market is still pretty damn expensive. I tried my hand at stocks this year with not much luck when it seems like everyone made money.. Bought siri when it was 7 :O

Then the Prosper site itself and the message board will help :)

In 2000, I was dating a guy who was VERY "stats" savvy. He watched trends like a hawk. He told me to sell my stocks. I thought he was nuts. Then a few months after they started dropping, I sold in a panic. Just dumb, dumb, dumb. I made a few $$$'s here and there, but my accountant basically told me I'd be writing off the losses for years :(

It's funny because the only REAL money I've made in stocks in when I've invested in friend's public companies. I'll stick to that now :thumbsup

I moved several years ago to a little town 1.5 hours outside ATL to get away from it all. Seems one of the guys who started WEBMD owns tens of thousands of acres and is developing it like crazy. We're now the 2nd fastest growing county in GA. Granted, now I plan on MOVING out of the town because now I'm back in the crap I moved away from, but the money made on buying up property a while back has been excellent :)