Comments on: Can Prosper Pay Interest?

By: RateLadder

RateLadder — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:45:38 +0000

I agree. Just reporting on what he said in the townhall…

The problem as I see it is one of perception not in actual return… Let’s say Lending Club offers to pay interest tomorrow. I would suspect that Ledning Club would see a surge in deposits. It is not limited to Lending Club… Prosper would see the same surge if they started to pay interest.

By: NewHorizon

NewHorizon — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:41:42 +0000

I suspect JW’s earlier analogy – in his now-deleted blog – of complaining about an absence of sofas in a bus station might be a better reflection of his feeling toward interest-paying accounts than “Maybe…”.

By: Chrisfs

Chrisfs — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:11:14 +0000

In a past post somewhere, John Witchel said, lenders cash was kept in separate accounts, known as FBO accounts, as this was safer,that if Prosper folded, the money could easily easily returned to us this way and that Fed Regs prevented paying interest on this type of account. Now at Prosper Days, he says “Maybe”, So I guess there’s trade offs. They are working on some type of workaround.
I don’t care so much since I only have a small amount of cash, I can see people who have a lot of cash, wanting it,but as John also pointed out,
we have instant transfers on over $500 now. So you can keep your money in an outside interest bearing account and transfer it over when you want it.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:20:45 +0000

I agree. I’ve got my money in the PayPal MMA, even though I know the funds aren’t guaranteed. I never keep too much money in there anyway. But I do want it earning money for me if possible. The same thing for my Prosper and LC accounts.

Let’s go on strike.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:10:57 +0000

I’m just waiting to see who is going to be first – Lending Club or Prosper.