Update: RateLadder Prosper Listing Request Reaches 100% Funded

Sometime late afternoon on Wednesday (1/30/08) my loan reached 100% funding. This is a critical first step in getting a Prosper loan. Without reaching 100% funded you cannot get a Prosper loan. Reaching 100% funded should be the 1st goal of an Prosper borrower and the tools for reaching 100% should be employed to their fullest.

Choose the right interest rate. Prosper now suggests rates (borrower rate guidance) when you make the listing. Choose the best chance of funding.
Include a picture. People like to know who they are dealing with.
Layout why your loan request makes sense financially. Lenders want to know that you understand and control your situation.
Get endorsements from friends preferably that have bid on your loan. I have 11 endorsements (maybe a bit of overkill) and 11 bids from Prosper friends. I also have a number of bids from friends that are not confirmed Friends on Prosper. Thank you all!
Answer questions. If a lender takes an interest in your loan enough to ask a question, they deserve an answer. I have answered all but one question asked. The question involved details of my financial life that I am just not comfortable sharing. I intentionally left out an income and budget breakdown from my listing. I do not recommend this if you are trying for your lowest possible interest rate. But I simply did not feel comfortable sharing that information (perhaps to my interest rate detriment). I think my hesitation stems from my position in the community — I am not a stranger posting these facts. In fact, I think I will answer the lenders question in this same statement.

Being open about your financial needs is hard. Scary even. But if your loan makes financial sense and your are honest Prosper Lenders will give you a great rate.

Once you reach 100% funding the real fun begins. Lenders compete for your loan. Each future bid brings a potential loan rate reduction. At the time of writing this blog post (10:36 pm pst on 1/30/08) my loan had been bid down from my starting rate of 12.23% down to 12.08%. There is still 6+ full days of bidding to go. How low can it go?

$25 Bonus For New Lenders
How to Use Prosper Listing Widget for MySpace, Blog, Website, or Other

7 Comments | January 31, 2008 | Filed Under Listing Review, Prosper.com, Strategy | 7 Comments

Zopa CD Drops to 4.5%

A few days ago I wrote about the Zopa CD being the best national cd rate at 5.1% after the federal reserve cut the fed funds rate by 75 basis points. RateLadder locked in the 5.1% rate with a 1 year $500 CD.

Alas if you did not take advantage of the 5.1% CD it is no longer available. Zopa has reduced the rate to 4.5%. It is a NCUA insured CD, which means it is guaranteed. At 4.5% it is not nearly as exciting and interesting as 5.1%. The top yielding 1 year CD in the nation is at 4.71%.

Wall street is expecting another rate cut and when/if it occurs Zopa might yet again look attractive. If history is our guide, you need to be ready if you want to lock in a great rate.

Zopa 4.5%

No Comments | January 30, 2008 | Filed Under Zopa | Leave a Comment

Lending Club Stats

If you want to try Lending Club be sure to sign up with this link to receive $25 bonus.

Until now LendingClub has lacked a customer friendly loan and listing statistics site. Sure you could sql query the data at ProProsper (select * from lendingclubloanstats), even though it is powerful it lacks consumer friendliness and a certain pizazz.

Introducing LendingClubStats by Eric of the rightfully famous and successful Eric’s Community Credit. Awesome job Eric!

Loans by Status, Credit, and Amount
Loan Growth
A Listing search although still not all the data that is displayed

Lending Club, More Data Please!

LC Loan Gowth

5 Comments | January 29, 2008 | Filed Under Features, Lending Club, Site Review | 5 Comments

People of Prosper [pic]

Prosper is diverse and outstandingly egalitarian. I am celebrating that diversity with a pictorial of credit worthy*** borrowers. Everyone of these borrowers has credit worthy of extending credit. Do these photos make you want to bid? Would you give them a loan? Click any picture to be taken to their Prosper listing.

*** Using my own extremely tight lending credit criteria and the existence of a non blurry personal photo and a listing that expires in more than 5 days were my only criteria. Credit Criteria: 0 current delinquencies, 0 delinquencies in the last 7 years, 0 public records in the last 10 years, 0-1 inquires in the last 6 months, 3-85% bankcard utilization. These are all live listings as of 1/27/08 at 8pm pst There were 157 listings at the time ignoring the picture and listing age requirements. This link leads to a search matching the criteria I used to create this pictorial.

No Comments | January 28, 2008 | Filed Under Listing Review | Leave a Comment