TheCreditTruth.org offers up exactly what it advertises–the truth about credit, credit reporting and those “free” credit report offers found all over the Internet. The first thing you’ll notice about the well-designed site is the “Credit Report Bill of Rights” listed on the left. This “Bill of Rights” explains that you can get a free credit report from each bureau (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) once per year, or within 60 days of being turned down for credit.

The site also explains that you don’t need so-called free credit report offers that require a paid service or credit monitoring, because you have the right to your information free, straight from the source. The sight appeals to the eye and is easy to navigate, drawing you in with the quality of the information rather than flashy graphics or effects.

The impressive blog has been updated regularly for almost 3 years, so that site visitors get the latest information on credit scores and financial concerns. The website itself explains why you’re entitled to your credit reports, what the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) means to you, and what your credit score numbers mean.

An easy to read navigation bar at the top lets you find your way through the 10 major sections of the site where you’ll find detailed, easily accessible and accurate credit reporting information. Unlike fluff articles that really don’t say anything but instead try to sell you on a service, the articles at TheCreditTruth.org are packed with information.

The section about “free” credit reports gives you step-by-step information about how to get your free credit reports online from the source credit reporting agencies, a strategy about when to get them that will let you keep an eye on your credit (for free), what type of information the reports will include and how to examine the reports to find mistakes and potential problems, as well as signs of identity theft.

The article doesn’t stop there. It goes on to explain what to do if you find errors or signs of identity theft to take care of the problems. The advice isn’t general, like “contact the agency about the error,” but rather a detailed list of what to do in which order to get the errors fixed. It explains what kind of a letter to send to them about an error, how to send it properly and what information you need to include.

All of the articles and sections at TheCreditTruth.org are just as detailed and helpful. Handy charts and pie graphs help you understand how your credit score is determined and how the information is weighted to come up with a number. There’s an entire section on avoiding credit scams, and one on how to improve your credit score. There’s even a list of pros and cons of credit monitoring, and a comparison chart to help you choose the best service if you decide to watch your credit report carefully for problems.

TheCreditTruth.org really does offer the truth about your credit score and credit reporting by giving you enough information to make informed decisions about your financial health.

• Import Prosper.com Listing, Loan, Group, Member Data into Microsoft Sql Server 2000 Prosper.com makes all publicly available data accessible via a data export.  They also provide tools for importing that data into Microsoft Sql Server 2005.  What they don't provide is a mechanisms for getting this data into other databases, specifically in my case Microsoft Sql Server 2000.  I have succeeded in......
• Pimp My Listing #1 -- Blessed with Triplets I am starting a new semi-regular feature. Pimp my listing. I don't yet know at what frequency I will post this feature. These listings will be the best of best extended credit AA-C credit grades and good rates. Most will be larger loans and most will have caught my attention.......
• Prosper Ordered to Cease and Desist by SEC http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2008/33-8984.pdf It appears to me that the ruling is that they have been selling unregistered securities without a license.  What does that mean for the lenders?   Doesn't the board and company officers have some personal liability too? There is some discussion at prospers.org: http://www.prospers.org/forum/prosper_order_to_cease_and_desist_by_sec-t10903.0.html No one seems sure just yet... SEC: UNITED......
• Pertuity Direct Launches http://www.pertuitydirect.com/docs/launch_press_release.pdf Pertuity Direct Launches Next Generation Social Finance Platform Company Brings Together the Advantages of Capital Markets, Social Networking and Traditional Banking Vienna, VA, January 22, 2009 – Pertuity Direct, an online consumer financial services company built on the foundation of mutually responsible banking, today announced the launch of its......
• Blogger Obtains Loan Using Social Capital Any regular reader will know that last week I brought my first group listing to the marketplace. (As an aside, a group leader is no longer paid for successful listings and the haven't been since September 13, 2007: Email To Group Leaders After Recent Changes. I think this was a......

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SpendonLife.com is an easy to navigate website offering your credit report and credit score instantly online. Through the website, you can access your credit information from the 3 major credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. But more than just helping you get this information, the website helps with credit monitoring, and highly informative articles about what the reports mean and why the information should matter to you.

SpendonLife is broken down into sections that are clearly marked in a navigation bar near the top. There are sections on debt, identity theft, credit reports, loans and a link to their blog where informative posts go up regularly with more information about current credit-related news and statistics. Occasionally, services are recommended in the blog that they think might be of interest to their website visitors.

Not only can you get your credit information, but you can find out just about everything you could possibly want to know about your credit report. Dozens of articles help visitors do everything from reading their credit report to preventing a child’s identity theft.

A website with this much information could be dense and hard to get through, but this one isn’t. The articles are balanced with helpful illustrations and images of things like example credit reports. In addition, the articles are reader-friendly. They don’t read like technical instruction manuals but rather as clear, friendly advice and tips on how to get your financial life in order.

You’ll find advice on important financial and credit matters including:

• How to get your debt under control
• How to keep medical bills from destroying your credit
• What to do if you become a victim of identity theft
• What to do to protect yourself from phishing, and what to do if you’re a victim
• What to do if your credit cards are stolen
• How to know which debts are better than others
• How to establish a good credit history
• How to know whether credit card charge-offs are a good debt-reducing option
• How to know if you should deal with a credit repair specialist or agency
• How to know if you’re overpaying on your mortgage
• How to handle tax time

Those are just a few of the informative articles at SpendonLife.com, but there are dozens more as well as the blog posts which keep the information fresh and current.

You’ll be immediately aware that the website offers you a free credit report as well as other credit services, but there’s such a wealth of information on the site it’s far more valuable than just the free credit information it offers.

The credit monitoring service offered at the site allows you to keep tabs on your credit score so you’ll be alerted if anything changes that could signal errors or identity theft. And with all the up-to-date information on the website, you’ll know what to do if this happens. The website is a helpful credit resource that encourages you to get your finances in order so you can spend more on your life instead of on your debt.

• Hey, Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? There are many ways to secure loans these days, but due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, banks and other financial institutions have been much tighter on their guidelines to lend.  It seems you need an almost perfect credit score these days to get a low interest rate.  Now that this......
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• Green Note Review /caption] P2P student loans have exploded onto the scene this past year, due in a large part to a lack of availability of traditional loans. There has never been a better time for a p2p site to start offering student loan assistance, and Green Note is one of the newest......

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http://www.pertuitydirect.com/

Just received the following email…

Welcome To Pertuity Direct

Welcome! Thanks for signing up to receive updates about the Pertuity Direct launch.

We have been hard at work for the last two years, building a social lending business that is targeted toward busy people that would like to enjoy the high investment returns and low loan rates of peer to peer lending, but don’t want to deal with figuring out all of the ins and outs of optimizing the process.

We make social lending hassle free:
For lenders, your investment dollars are deployed and start to earn returns immediately
You get the safety of automatic diversification
If you want to withdraw your money early – not a problem, just a few click to get your money back
Our borrowers are rewarded for working hard to maintain good credit by getting approved and funded quickly with great, low rates
Welcome to social lending without the bidding, gaming or guessing. We handle all the work for you. You get all the benefit.

We are just a few short weeks away from launch and are putting finishing touches on everything so that you will enjoy your experience at Pertuity Direct. So stay tuned, we will be coming to market in September and will keep you in the loop.

The Pertuity Direct Team

• Loanio is Expecting Launch within Days I have been having an ongoing email conversation with Michael Solomon the CEO of Loanio for quite some time... In fact, he originally bought advertising on this blog over a year ago. While still hesitant to give an exact date, he told me in no uncertain terms that Loanio is......
• Lending Club Files S1 with SEC Lending Club has filed an S1 with the SEC (link to S1 filing). It looks to be similar in nature to the Prosper filed an S1 reported here on 10/30/2007. This continues the Lending Club quiet period started on 4/8/2008. Originally I had guessed 7 months to 1.5 years for......
• Big Lending Club News -- Quiet Period Underway for Secondary Market UPDATE:  After a second reading I think my assumption about the secondary market is incorrect...  (My own hopes for such a market might have clouded my vision.)  It looks like LC is just registering for a license that they think they need to continue working with "lenders": http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/08/lending-club-puts-moratorium-on-lending-activity/ I am leaving......
• Blogger Wants a Prosper Listing Review A blogger (The Property Pundit) emailed me and asked for a listing review and so I ask my readers. Please review this listing. Would you bid? Why or Why Not? How can the listing be improved? A credit grade and clean extended credit. $25 Bonus For New Lenders How to......
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Green Note

P2P student loans have exploded onto the scene this past year, due in a large part to a lack of availability of traditional loans. There has never been a better time for a p2p site to start offering student loan assistance, and Green Note is one of the newest entrants into the marketplace.

The concept here is pretty simple. A student signs up for the service and fills out a profile stating how much money they need for their education. They can either set up or join a community to try to get assistance. Emphasis is placed on inviting your own friends and family to your community, so it is not clear on whether or not you will be able to seek outside assistance for your loan as a borrower.

Once you have your network built up and you have people that are ready to fund your education, they go through the process at Green Note to fill out all of the paperwork. All loans carry a 6.8% fixed rate and will be due upon graduation. This could cause problems for those looking for an instant return on their investment, but the site is pretty clear about what lenders can expect.

We liked the fact that this site caters to students, regardless of their credit history. Basically, if your community feels you have merit, you’ll have a pretty good chance of getting funding for school. They also focus on having several people lend on one loan, which does spread the risk around quite a bit. It’s similar to going to a family reunion and hitting up all of your relatives for a few bucks, only a lot more organized.

There is a lot of protection here for lenders and we appreciated the fact that they are formalizing the P2P process to make it safer to lend. We would have liked to see a little more information on how collections are handled, but overall, it’s clear that Green Notes has everyone’s best interests at heart.

One very interesting point is that no co-signers are needed for a loan and that citizenship is not necessary. While this is terrific for foreign students that have decided to study in the US, it does raise some concern for lenders, especially if the student returns to their home country and it is impossible to reach them. There is a potential for abuse here, and this was probably our main concern. However, given that the site is still in formation, we’ll give them a chance to address this point.

Overall, Green Note is perfect for those that already have a good community of family and friends that are interested in lending towards their education. It’s not really meant to be a way to find new people to help with funding, but it does help bring these communities together and make the entire process of lending money a lot safer for everyone involved. It will be interesting to see how this site grows over the next few months and how well it is received.

• P2P No Bank -- Aggregating P2P Lending Blogs — Covering Kiva, Lending Club, Prosper, Zopa, and more. I think my readers would like to know about: P2P No Bank. P2PNoBank aggregates all known blogs that blog about p2p lending semi-regularly. It does not steal content as it only shows an excerpt. Readers must read the entire content on the source site. However, it does pull all blogs......
• SpendonLife.com SpendonLife.com is an easy to navigate website offering your credit report and credit score instantly online. Through the website, you can access your credit information from the 3 major credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. But more than just helping you get this information, the website helps with credit......
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• Prosper Community What happened to the Prosper community?  The new Prosper forums are difficult to use...  Where did the community go? It turns out that some industrious soul has archived the old Prosper forum...  To see an archive of the old official Prosper forum check out the site http://www.prosperreport.com/ Another p2p lending forum is......
• Hey, Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? There are many ways to secure loans these days, but due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, banks and other financial institutions have been much tighter on their guidelines to lend.  It seems you need an almost perfect credit score these days to get a low interest rate.  Now that this......

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Virgin Money is another the brainchild of Richard Branson, the well known entrepreneur that is behind a multitude of businesses, record labels and projects throughout the world. His belief is that everyone should have access to the money they need when they are trying to get money for a business or even for personal reasons. This is one of the latest entries into the p2p lending sphere and we were interested to see what they had to offer.

Unlike many of the current p2p lending sites, this one does not just focus on personal loans. Real estate professionals, small business owners and regular people can all use the site to get the money that they need. They are also developing a section for students looking to fund their education and these loans will soon be made available as well.

The interesting concept behind this site is that it isn’t strictly a lending community. Rather, it is a resource for p2p lenders and borrowers to take care of formalities and hash out loan paperwork. For instance, let’s say that your Aunt Sally wants to lend you money for a new car. Typically, there may be a little confusion over what kind of interest you would pay, when payments were due, etc… Virgin Money was made to make it easier for Aunt Sally to manage the loan and for you to pay it back.

So, in essence, borrowers will need to do all the legwork to find someone willing to lend them money, and then send them to Virgin Money to complete the deal. This is an interesting concept, and while it may not be as popular as the sites that connect lenders and borrowers, there is still definitely a need for a service like this.

Virgin Money acts as a manager for the loans, to make sure that both parties adhere to loan agreements. This makes it easier for lenders to get payments on time and helps borrowers keep track of everything to do with the loan. Since loans between family and friends do have a tendency to get a little messy, this site should make a big difference.

Quite honestly, we see Virgin Money as being more suited to lenders than borrowers. There is a lot more protection for a friendly family loan when you’re doing it through Virgin Money and they can assist borrowers in learning the ropes. While there are some services for borrowers, the main intent does appear to be to assist lenders in managing a loan.

We did like the fact that they provide legal agreements and help everyone set terms for a loan that are acceptable. One thing that we did not see was information on collections, so this is not clear as to whether lenders are on their own, or if they will have some assistance from Virgin Money.

Bottom line, before you think about lending money out to family members or a friend, it’s probably a good idea to use a service like this to make sure that you are protected.

• Community Lend Review CommunityLend.com is still in their beta phase, and has yet to fully launch yet, but they do have some interesting features that are already obvious. Like most p2p lending sites, they are striving to create an alternative to traditional bank loans, but they are also trying to take that......
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CommunityLend.com is still in their beta phase, and has yet to fully launch yet, but they do have some interesting features that are already obvious. Like most p2p lending sites, they are striving to create an alternative to traditional bank loans, but they are also trying to take that to the next level by developing actual online communities both for borrowers and lenders.

The premise of CommunityLend is that the more competition there is for your loan, the less interest you’ll have to pay. This should really appeal to those who are trying to save money on their loans, or have been turned away by traditional lenders. While there information is not yet complete, it does appear that the site will be catering heavily to borrowers.

Lenders however will still be taken care of. We appreciated the fact that they pointed out that only a select few are allowed to take advantage of the benefits of lending in the traditional standard. By creating this type of site, they hope to open up the billion dollar lending industry to smaller investors and groups that are looking for a solid way to make money.

While it is not yet clear if there will be any restrictions for borrowers, such as a minimum credit score, the site does appear to be trying to link up borrowers with very affordable loans. The main focus appears to be on small, unsecured loans for things like paying off a wedding or managing debt, but it could conceivably be used for cars, student loans and other financial needs.

The online community feature is quite interesting and appears to be centered around the goal of bringing charitable and local organizations together online, where they will be able to reach out to those in need. Once communities are created, they are free to get new members to join, and there will be features for discussion, learning and more.

The company has already arranged for multi-million dollar funding and their About Page reads like a veritable who’s who in banking and interest business. We found their roster to be very impressive and it looks as though the company is going to be in very good hands. Even the best concepts can falter with a lack of leadership, and it appears as though CommunityLend should be able to avoid that issue.

There are no set launch dates yet, but the company has moved quickly since receiving their financing in December of 2007. Borrowers, lenders and communities can sign up for more information and news on when the official launch will take place. Given that they have built a very strong foundation so far, they should not have any problems succeeding in this market place.

We liked the ideals behind CommunityLend and wish them well on their journey to becoming a p2p lending destination. We’ll be watching with interest to see how they develop and carve out their niche in this competitive industry. It will definitely be interesting to see how they progress.

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This year, it has never been more difficult to get a student loan, thanks to new federal regulations. Hundreds of lenders announced that they would no longer be taking part in federal loan programs and schools are struggling to try to offer loans directly to students. This opened up a huge marketplace in the p2p sector for student loans, and business is definitely booming.

Fynanz.com is probably one of the best known p2p student lending marketplaces in the business and they have built up an impressive track record. The process is actually quite interesting and so far, they have been very successful with placing student loans with those that need the help. In brief, a student will need to join the Fynanz.com community, and then set up what amounts to an online auction.

This auction details the student’s loan request, and further information about why they need the money. Once the auction starts, lenders in the community bid on the loans. In order to place an auction, Fynanz.com first has to verify the identity of borrowers and lenders, and will underwrite the loan request. After the auction is complete, the lender supplies the money, which is then disbursed by Fynanz.com to the student and the school of their choice.

The process goes quite quickly and it’s very easy to get everything set up. Fynanz.com uses something called FACS to assist them in underwriting loans. What this means is that students are ranked according to risk, and assigned rates. Academic scores count heavily on this, as well as the student’s background. For those under the age of 21, a cosigner may be required to complete the loan.

We found it interesting that Fynanz.com decided to calculate risk on an academic model rather than the traditional credit scoring model. Rankings range from 500 to 820, much like FICO scores, and if a student’s FACS ranking is below 640 they will not be able to arrange for a loan through the service. Apparently, the company has found that grades are a very good indication on whether or not the loan will be paid, and they have had a lot of luck using this scoring method.

At the end of the day, this is a very fair way to determine whether or not a student should have a loan. This removes any economic barriers between students and focuses on their actual academic performance. It will be interesting to see if this model expands beyond p2p lending and into traditional banking.

The higher the FACS score, the lower the interest rate, which is also quite fair. For students that rank in the top tier, the margin range is 2.5% to 3.7%. This changes to 7.2% to 7.9% for scores that are in the 640 range. If there was ever a reason for students to focus on their grades, this is a pretty good one.

Fynanz also provides either partial or full guarantees on the original loan amount. The guarantee percentage is dependent on the FACS Grade of a loan listing.

While in enrolled in school at least half-time, a borrower may choose between different repayment options:

• Deferred Repayment Option or academic deferment – while in academic deferment the borrower is required to make monthly $25 Good Faith Payments. The Good Faith payments made while in academic deferment help the borrower establish a good relationship with lenders and demonstrate financial discipline. A six month grace period is given after separating from school.
• Interest Paid Option – full monthly interest payments are due on the loan while enrolled in school. Choosing the Interest Paid Repayment option can save thousands of dollars in interest expense over the life of the loan, because the $25 monthly Good Faith payments will likely not be enough to cover the interest accrued on the loan.

In either option mentioned above, monthly principal and interest payments will be due once loan repayment begins. We realize that some students may not yet have found employment even after six months; therefore, borrowers may request to pay just the interest expense on the loan for the first two years of repayment, “Initial Interest Only” option.

We liked Fynanz.com’s methods and have placed 2 bids on listings as of this morning… One is a platinum plus and the other a gold honors…

They also have a very attractive lending bonus as well. $25 bonus once you successfully lend to a borrower (you must sign up with a referral link to receive the bonus and in doing so the referrer would also receive $25). A 3% bonus when you lend $3,000 (that is a minimum bonus of $90 on $3000 lent.) If you lend $3K and refer 5 people the bonus is retroactively increased to 5% in addition to the $25 per referral. This is a very attractive bonus offer and one that I encourage all RateLadder readers to consider.

• Green Note Review /caption] P2P student loans have exploded onto the scene this past year, due in a large part to a lack of availability of traditional loans. There has never been a better time for a p2p site to start offering student loan assistance, and Green Note is one of the newest......
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A few weeks ago Rob Garcia at Lending Club announced updates to the lending account management features.  I apologize it has taken me this long to cover the update, but I have been busy at work and frankly without lenders having the ability to lend money I was lacking motivation.  Well I got to it this weekend and so I thought I would give a quick writeup…

Monthly Statements

This has been a long time coming.  On page 2 is exactly what I need in order to track Lending Club in Quicken the way I track Prosper in Quicken.  Here is the information on that page for Jan 08 (more interesting than then months since the quiet period began.)

Lending Club Statement

Account Activity

This information is also now available via the account activity tab… Here is my recent activity…

Lending Club Account Activity

Creating Your Own Portfolio Views

This seems like it might be a good way to group loans so that loan performance could be compared by loan groups. It is up to the account holder to define the “portfolios”. This seems like a good feature for the large lender interested in dissecting their performance; however, there is a major thin data problem for any loan group of less than 35 to 50 loans minimum.

Other

There are some other change when it comes to traversing your account. basically around retrieving and sorting loan while on the Lending Club website…

My Conclusions

Statements were sorely overdue and I am glad to have them. When is this quiet period going to end?

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• Lending Club vs Prosper -- The 1st 100 Days Recap and Modest Proposal Last week week I wrote a comparison of Prosper and Lending Club based entirely on loan volume in reaction to the Lending Club claim: 100 Days and a Million Dollars in Loans! Prosper had 2.6 times the loan volume: Lending Club vs Prosper — The First 100 Days Take 3 Lending......
• Lending Club Lender Signup Process P2P lending will change the world! Banks make too much money! In an effort to better understand the entire marketplace, I have decided to signup and start a small portfolio at LendingClub. My screen name at Lending Club is RateLadder... I guess I am just not hip, because for me......
• Renaud Laplanche, Lending Club CEO in the News Renaud Laplanche, founder and CEO of Lending Club in California recently spoke with Jackie Hyland from ABC News Money Matters about Lending Club, where borrowers with good credit can obtain personal loans from complete strangers. It was touted as providing a unique and creative way to get a loan that......
• Lending Club and Accounting for Pennies An penny sized accounting irregularity with Lending Club accounting was brought to my attention by HollowOak at MoneyWalks -- LendingClub - all those pennies are adding up.  Today, I received an email from Patrick Gannon Senior Vice President at Lending Club addressing the issue (subject = Lender notification - fractional......

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There was a Prosper update last night.   Nothing that was completely unexpected… The one thing that struck me as interesting was that borrower’s are now required to sign the promissory notes themselves…  Before the process had been that Prosper was authorized to sign on their behalf…  The part that struck me as interesting was the final paragraph…

Although this new process may add some additional time before loan funding, we expect that this change will reduce immediate loan payoffs and enhance the legal enforceability of Prosper promissory notes.

The bold part caught my attention (I added the bold for emphasis) as I am on the loans that are part of the legal test.  Related or just coincidental use of the root legal?  More info please.  Update: Ed Giedgowd Chief Compliance Officer and General Consul of Prosper provided an update on borrower sign loans.

Here the highlights from blog post:

• Portfolio Plan Bids can now be adjust as an average of all the bids in the plan
• Self employed and non verifiable income borrowers will now have DTI displayed as Not Calculated
• Income Range changed to Stated Income and now show regardless of whether it is verifiable or not
• More bankruptcy data is now being shown including chapter and filing date
• There is a messaging change for those lenders that wish to bid on negative ROI listings.

• Lender Due Diligence I liked the previous rgf post so much I went and looked up another of his posts...  This one is on Prosper Lender Due Diligence.  The forum thread is here.  Enjoy: Those that have followed my posts know that I lend money for a bank for a living (an underwriter).......
• Get Your Lending Club Loan Documentation Early For a Few Days of Free Money I was reading about LendingClub loans (I forget where, sorry) and I came across the following statement from Lending Club made to a lender on LC. Our loans expire two weeks after posting. This expiration date is the borrowers actual payment date, however some loans will fund early. Here is......
• Forbes (P2P Lending) and CNBC (LendingClub) This week has been a great week for p2p lending news. Forbes did an article (Banking 2.0: New Capital Connections For Entrepreneurs) and Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche was on Power Lunch at CNBC. I found this of interest from the Forbes article (small business loans from your local bank......
• Prosper Marketplace Auctioning Debt The Baltimore Sun is reporting the Prosper Settlement. A settlement for $1 million dollars paid to 20 different states was announced today, with Prosper Marketplace agreeing to the payout after complaints poured in claiming that the peer-to-peer lending service was selling securities that were unregistered. Prosper Marketplace is a business......
• November Prosper Marketplace Survey Released Prosper released the November marketplace survey and coresponding comentary from Chris Larsen... I particularly like the insight in the last paragraph... Of great interest is the anecdotal evidence of prime and near prime borrowers turning to Prosper for loans that would have historically been steered toward mortgage, auto, and home......

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• A Simple Plan A Rock, Pop Music Memorabilia Entertainment Memorabilia

One of the biggest challenges facing blog owners is keeping their site looking fresh without losing their appeal. Currently, there are thousands of free themes out there that can be used by anyone, but there are few designs that are not already in use. For blog owners that want to stand out from the crowd, these templates usually will not work. Unless they have the capability to do their own special designs, this often means hiring a professional.  Anyone, that has followed my blog over the last 1.5 years knows that I lack a certain… Je ne sais quoi… artistic flair.  I have been considering hiring a design firm to help…

Stylish Web Design offers some very unique services for websites as well as blogs. They specialize in assisting site owners with completely new looks for their blog designs, as well as logo design and search engine optimization. Since there are many entrants in this particular field, this is a competitive industry. Does Stylish Web Design and their design blog have what it takes to stand out from the crowd? Let’s take a look.

We liked the fact that they are very open about their past clients. This shows two major things. First, they are proud of their completed designs and second, their clients are happy with the finished results and more than pleased to allow the finished results to be seen. In looking through Stylish Web Design’s profile we also noted something that was quite interesting.

Often, when you are designing multiple web sites, it is all too easy to fall back on the same overall design. The colors may be different, but we have found in the past that many design firms simply turn out the same old look, time after time. Stylish Web Design’s portfolio was quite varied and each site they listed looked remarkably different. The layouts used for text were new and visually exciting and we appreciated their attention to little design details that really make a site stand out. 

We also appreciated the fact that they do offer a custom web design free quote. This is very helpful for website and blog owners that aren’t quite sure if they are ready to switch to a new design and offers them an opportunity to see what a third party would do if given the freedom to overhaul their site. This is an important part of the design process and can only benefit site owners.  (I have requested just such a quote for redesigning this blog… as soon as I have a response I will add that to this post.)

Overall, we found that Stylish Web Design provided a nice, broad range of services for custom web design and blog design. They are up to date with all of the latest techniques, which can only benefit a site owner in the end. Their own site was a very good billboard for their service, and showed that they do know how to do complex layouts very well, and still make sure that they display correctly in numerous different browsers.

If you’ve been thinking about changing up your blog design, we highly recommend taking advantage of their free quote service and reading their web design blog . This may get you started on the road to a completely fresh and new web design that will keep your readers engaged with your content.

So what do you think?  Without guidance as to my budget or to the costs of Stylish Web Design.  Do you think Rate Ladder could benefit from a design over haul?  Please leave a comment…

• Zopa Launches in United States Just noticed today that the Zopa US Site has launched...  I am not sure I like it... The FDIC insured CD is a decent rate 5.1% (5.15% at Etrade is the highest 1 year CD I could find on Bankrate).  But why would I reduce my yield just to help someone I......
• Final Theme Modification? I think I may have finally overcome my donut problem... With this theme I am trying to have a quality look to my website. I hope you find the result an improvement.  Like or hate it?  Leave a comment. In addition, I would like to thank the top 10 referrers......
• Yet Another Wordpress Theme Overhaul I hope that my readers find my new site design more pleasing.  You might also notice, I updated P2P No Bank as well. I intend to have a graphic made in the place of the current green one...  Here is the green logo for posterity... The benefit of this theme......
• Money Walks Lists RateLadder.com as an Interesting Prosper.com Blog I was looking into my Google Analytics statistics from 1/9/2007.  (I made it to the 3rd page of Reddit and stayed most of the day with my story Using Prosper.com for Your Emergency Fund - 312% improvement over CD Ladder). 90+% of my traffic came as a reddit referral.  I......
• Auto-funding vs Non-auto-funding AF vs NAF I have already blogged my affinity for standing orders over manual orders.    Given the choice and the current standing order options I would prefer only auto-funding loans, but there are too many good NAF for this to be the correct strategy.  With auto-finding loans the interest......

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