there was an article in readers digest about this site...

http://www.prosper.com/ ...

i think that it is a good idea, but it has so much risk attached to it... i haven't looked that much into the site yet about how the lender is protected, if any... but just wanted to see if any of you have used this site...

 

according to the site, the lender is not protected...the best you can do is, if the person asking for the loan defaults, you can write off what you initially gave

Edit: Still, if you bid $50-$100, and spread out on a lot of loans, you can try to minimize your risk

 

Funny, I was thinking about putting some money into:

www.kiva.org

 

that is alot of loans to spread out... i guess in the end the return adds up...

 

It's an interesting idea, but there doesn't seem to be many completed loans on there yet. I'd probably give it a year or more to get established.

 

I don't get it!

 

So anyone do this yet?

 

Looks interesting, I can't believe people are signing up for loans at over 15% on this though .

 

updates?

 

I registered; now to figure out how/what to use the service...I *would* like to join the rest of America by finally buying a big screen!

 

This is taken right out of a chapter of The World is Flat

With the advent of "community designed software" (ala Linux, Apache etc.) people are beginning to realize the potential for community based initiative to turn a profit. It is a great idea actually. The human resources on the Internet far outweigh the resources of the elite few in-charge, top-down decision makers.

Lending is just as risky for well known lending institutions, thus the rules and guidelines for lending. If you are willing to take that same risk then hey......you might make some money (or lose some)

 

If you are going to use it to borrow money, why not go to Best Buy and get a zero interest loan?

 

Just heard about prosper.com a little bit ago so I've started doing my research....but how do you get 0% loans at BB? I thought they were like 20% unless you pay everything off within a few months???

 

promotional no interest finance offers...they always run it at CC its typically 12 months to 3 yrs for big screens $499 AND UP