kranky
Elite Member
Heard about a novel idea today - prosper.com . It matches up people who want to borrow money with people who want to lend money. The lenders "bid" for an amount and an interest rate they want, and those who bid the lowest interest rate "win".
The site collects and disburses the money electronically, and loan payments are made through automatic withdrawals from the borrower's bank account.
I think this is a cool idea - just like ebay, it can cut way down on the margins involved in borrowing/collecting interest. Lenders could get (for example) 8% instead of 3% from their money market account, and borrowers can pay a lot less than high credit card or personal loan rates.
Who knows if it will pan out, but a similar site in England has never had a default and lenders get an average of 7%.
[edited to include link]
The site collects and disburses the money electronically, and loan payments are made through automatic withdrawals from the borrower's bank account.
I think this is a cool idea - just like ebay, it can cut way down on the margins involved in borrowing/collecting interest. Lenders could get (for example) 8% instead of 3% from their money market account, and borrowers can pay a lot less than high credit card or personal loan rates.
Who knows if it will pan out, but a similar site in England has never had a default and lenders get an average of 7%.
[edited to include link]