Archive for August, 2008

I have always loved magic. As a kid I was amazed at how the magician could make a beautiful lady disappear and reappear in a different outfit or cut her in half and put her back together. My favorite trick is the one where the magician is able to pull deck after deck of cards out of thin air, fan them out, and toss them to the ground and pull more cards out of nowhere. I used to buy books and videos on how to perform my own magic. I even learned how to levitate a few inches off the ground. So how are these tricks performed? Well, few magicians may really have magical powers, but most others magicians practice the secrets of illusions and sleight of hand. The key is knowledge and practice.

After working at Prosper for over a year and a half, I have seen many borrowers hope for something magical to happen to their listing without any knowledge of how to get funded. But just like a magician, you’ll first need the knowledge and then go and practice it. It does take some time and practice to create a good listing.

Some things to remember when creating a listing:

1. Include a meaningful picture: A picture is worth more than a thousand words. When I was a child my favorite books were the books with the most pictures. People like pictures and if they like your picture, you might win that bid.
2. Include a description that makes sense: Everyone already knows you want the money, so this is the place to explain the reasons why. Make sure everything you explain makes sense.
3. Double check your grammar and spelling: Your teacher is not going to grade your listing, but lenders are going to make assumptions based on what they see. If your listing looks like it is well organized and well thought out, then that reflects the type of borrower that created the listing.
4. Answer lenders’ questions: If any lender took the time to ask you a question, they must have some interest in your listing, so reply promptly with an honest answer and you might win that bid.
5. Get recommendations with bids from friends and family: Just like in the real world, a few good words from a good reference will help build trust and narrow the gap between two strangers. Recommendations are strong because actions (money) speak louder than words.
6. Loan Amount and Interest Rate: Prosper listings with low loan amounts are funded more often than listings with high loan amounts. So if your loan amount is too high you might want to try lowering it to attract more bids from lenders. And increasing your starting interest rate may attract more bids and drive your interest rate down!

With these secrets, you too can now perform some Prosper magic. Voilà!

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Alex Hung is a member of Prosper’s Support Team

Within the vast billing network of your various goods and services, fees are affecting everyone these days. Banks, credit cards, mobile phones and even your retirement fund, for example, can siphon funds from you without your oversight. Make it a resolution now to look for the following hidden fees and gain extra money in your budget. There are many books about this topic, one of which is written by Bob Sullivan called Gotcha Capitalism.

Checking Account
The old checkbook is going the way of the horse and buggy, but not yet. Now is the time to scrutinize the monthly statement for service fees, ATM charges, even insufficient balance penalties.

Often with either comparing other types of checking accounts that your bank offers or looking into competing institutions, there can substantial savings.

Credit Cards
Take all of your plastic out and do a survey. Which one has the highest interest rate? What are the fees on late payments or cash advances?

This is a time where the intense competition between credit card companies can work to your advantage. Transfer funds to a lower interest account or begin to pay the highest one off first are two ways to tame the plastic beast. Compare fees from other companies and give your business to the card that serves you best.

Going Mobile
That super convenient mobile phone also conveniently sucks money out of your pocket. An assessment of your phone plan is necessary especially if you are consistently exceeding your monthly talk minutes. An upgrade to a new plan may be in order, and even if your monthly cost goes up slightly, the additional minutes may cover your overage fees. More importantly, get rid of excess add-ons that you don’t use. Text messaging is the mobile phone company’s best profit friend. If you don’t use it much, it’s an easy savings. And if you still find the costs too high check out alternatives such as Skype Mobile.

Fund Follies
The 401k plan can be your best ally for retirement savings. But first you have to interact with it beyond monthly contributions. Get together with the advisers that either your company provides or get in touch with the persons who sold the fund to your company: you can also do your own research through several websites including the Department of Labor’s employee benefits site. No question is too stupid and understanding the allocations is not difficult if you have the basic explanations. These advisers can also help you allocate your investments within the fund and provide knowledge on fees.

It should not be so hard to find out about the fee structures of your accounts but somehow it is made difficult - not transparent. It is one of the reasons Prosper is so refreshing – all the fees are easy to find, nothing is hidden.

Knowledge has no fee… unless you go Ivy League!

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Steve McDonald is a freelance writer and Prosper member since October 2007.

Michael Phelps has won another World Record, another race, and another gold. This makes the total gold count 13. He has won 7 gold from this Olympics. Phelps has now surpassed Mark Spitz in Olympic gold medals.

Corporatism where investment income is taxed differently than earned income by Brip Blap this week looks at taxes and debt.

It’s getting to be that time! Holidays are right around the corner, Generation X Finance writes reduce your holiday stress by saving and planning today.

Patrick at Cash Money Life posts on improving your career with sales and marketing skills. It boils down to two things: the customer and the product. Get to know both!

What we can learn from the housing crisis? Rich Credit Debt Loan examines the real estate market and comes away with five very important lessons.

The Digerati Life blogs this week on the subject of blogging. The stats in make money blogging: top bloggers and how much they earn are above and beyond. We all know the internet can be a source of great income, but this post is truly inspiring for the aspiring.

Lazy Man and Money asks should you put a price on your health? He makes the point that the average person simply can not do the same things a sports athlete like Michael Phelps or a Hollywood actor like Brad Pitt.

CNN Money offers 21 Ways to Stomach a Sour Market

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RateLadder is a Prosper lender and has been since July, 2006. He has a passion for p2p lending. He owns RateLadder — My Prosper.com Journey and other P2P Lending Adventures, P2P No Bank the P2P Blog Aggregate, and ProProsper — Professional Tools for Prosper Lenders featuring SQL access to Prosper data.

Last night we made another update to the Prosper site. We’ve focused on making the site easier to use (particularly for first-time members), and have changed the way delinquent loans are displayed.

Family and Friend Lenders can bid via PayPal or Credit Card

In this release, borrowers will find it easier to request (and receive) bids from friends and family. After clicking on a friend’s email invitation, new lenders may fund their first bid using PayPal or a credit card. The new process is smooth and easy, and only takes a few minutes. These changes should further empower the Prosper community to help each other get funded.

Engaging their network of friends and family is the easiest way for borrowers to show that they are trusted, and lenders are eager to reward their effort - listings with bids from family and friends have a higher likelihood of being funded. If you’re an existing lender, you can use the advanced search tool to find borrowers who have bids from their friends. Happy bidding!

Marketplace Performance Page Changes

We are changing the way we display seriously delinquent loans on the marketplace performance page, renaming “Defaults” as “Charge-offs”, and moving the “4+ months late” loans into the “Charge-offs” category. We want to have transparency in the reporting of our marketplace’s default rate, and this change should help lenders take a more direct measure of the market’s charge-off rate. This change is the first step in a larger change we will be making in the way delinquent loans are displayed in lender portfolios.

Instant Transfer Changes

We are happy to announce the expansion of our instant transfer program in this month’s update. In the past, lenders could only execute an instant transfer that amounted to 20% of their active loan value (50% for lenders with the Facebook application installed).

Now, lenders with at least one active loan will be able to transfer as little as $500 ($50 with the Facebook app installed) and as much as $20,000 instantly. We hope this change will make it easier for new lenders to get funds deployed quickly and easily. Learn more about instant transfer.

Check out our Licenses

We added scanned copies of our state lending licenses to the Legal Compliance page. If you click on the name of the license, you’ll get to see the license in full glory. Our license for Illinois, the Prairie State, is at right.

Faster Listings for Qualified Borrowers

In an effort to get higher-quality borrowers through the Prosper loan application process more quickly, we’re testing a streamlined listing process where some borrowers post listings without adding a title, picture, or description. You’ll start seeing these listings on the marketplace, with titles like “My personal loan for [category]“.

We hope you find these changes helpful, and look forward to your feedback. If you have any requests for the next release, please leave a comment.

Prosper, America’s largest people-to-people lending marketplace, today released results for July 2008. For the first time, the survey includes statistics showing how borrowers who list and get funded in the Prosper marketplace indicate how they plan to use their personal loans. Also noteworthy, the percentage of prime borrowers (borrowers with 720+ credit scores) hit an all time high in July, accounting for 47% of funded loans.

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July 2008 Prosper People-to-People Lending Market Survey

Purpose of Personal Loan Listings and Fundings

Borrowers who post listings in the Prosper marketplace are asked how they intend to use their personal loan. The following reflects borrowers’ statements of intended use of loan proceeds with regard to both listings and loans. Prosper does not verify or confirm after funding how loan proceeds are used.

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