2 Weekend Guest Posts from Prosper Members…
Prosper vs. My Credit Card (hint: Prosper Wins) by MommyOf2
Back in early 2007, I went on a little spending spree for by new baby son since I have a mild obsession with baby clothes (OK, maybe it’s a little more than mild). Needless to say, I ran up a nice little tab of about $1,500 on my credit cards in a few short weeks (a woman has the right to nest a little, eh?). I found Prosper through a friend and joined a group on Prosper (www.P2P-Loans.com), which gave me an alternative to simply paying the monthly minimum on my credit card. The credit card company was charging me about 15% and the minimum payments barely made a dent in what I owed. Prosper gave me a great alternative and P2P-Loans.com and my group leader, who I know personally, helped a ton by backing my loan with a large bid and an endorsement. I closed my $1,500 loan with Prosper at a LOW LOW 7.0%, which saved me a ton of money and allowed me to pay this bill off in a short 8-9 months as opposed to many years with the credit card. Thank you Prosper and thank you to my group, which was a big reason that I got such a great rate!
Excited to Help! by prestige727
I had not known about peer to peer lending until December 2007. We were visiting family over the holidays and in the hotel we were staying, the USA Today newspaper was provided at your door every morning. I am a real estate investor and my husband and I own a small used car lot. Things started slowing down around July for the car lot but the houses were still doing O.K. In November, both came to a stall. I had just asked my husband what should our next venture should be. I believe it was on the December 27th that I read the article about peer to peer lending. I was very interested. Although the article mentioned more than one company that was doing this, Prosper.com was the name that stuck in my head. From that day on I consistently monitored the website, reading requests for loans. After about 2 weeks I decided to try it. I transfered $500.00 from my bank account and started bidding. I lost a few bids in the beginning but was happy for the people who had received the loan. Just this week I won my first bid, a young man who needed to purchase a car to get back and forth to college and work. I was so happy. It was at that moment I realized that I was more eager to help someone than I was to win a bid. I have about $100.00 left in my account. My plan is to transfer at least another $1500.00 by the end of the month. Now I know they’re a lot of good people just bad situations. Thanks Prosper.com for thinking of people who really do need a second, third and even fourth chance to prove themselves.
