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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.

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 [...]

Continue reading → Fynanz Review

The methodolgy or the sql for obtaining the data these curves from the private data export have already been explained in detail, but briefly…

The Y axis is the percentage of all loans orginated of a given age that are currently 1 month late or worse…
The X axis is the days loan origination. 
The curves stop when [...]

Continue reading → Prosper 1 Month Late or Worse Curves

I received a rather unusual linked in connection request today… I thought it was out of the blue and almost deleted it… (It may have been out of the blue, but since I cover p2p lending I thought I would take the opportunity to scope/scoop the story.)
The website just has a sign up form to [...]

Continue reading → Zing Funding to Launch?

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 [...]

Continue reading → Lending Club Updates Lending Functionality

Another month another update…  The picture is rather muddled right now between the accrued interest showing up in my account balance even on loans that are technically “charged off”and lending stats changing their algorithm… All I can do is continue to track and hope fore some clarity…  On a positive note I have had no [...]

Continue reading → Update of IRR/ROI Values July 2008

I read through the Lending Club S1 finally…  I found a few parts of the S1 interesting…  Over the next few day I will lighlight a few of my favorite sections.  I am not a lawyer nor do I claim to fully understand everything that I am reading.   I am simply copying verbatim parts of the Lending [...]

Continue reading → Lending Club Liquidity and Capital Resources

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 [...]

Continue reading → Prosper Update Enhances the Legal Enforceability of Promissory Notes

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 the Lending Club quiet period and [...]

Continue reading → Lending Club Files S1 with SEC

My Prosper Group is proud to present our 3rd listing (2nd endorsed listing)… This listing is attempting to put the social in social capital.
The Penny Saved has been a known blogroll buddy of RateLadder for sometime. He asked me about this loan strategy about 2 months ago. This is a calculated decision on his part.
He [...]

Continue reading → Programmer and Blogger Seeks Credit Score Improvment Loan