Goodbye Banks, Hello Peer to Peer Lending

[jgoose71 0]

A free market will find a way.

With the banks not giving loans to small businesses, and the loans they do give coming with high rates, penalties, and closing costs, Peer to Peer Lending is getting more popular it seems.

I did a google search and found lots of Peer to Peer lending groups. I'm just happy to see the banks have some competition. I hope more people turn to these and maybe even start coming up with ways to work the payday lenders out of business.

I just heard of Peer to peer lending. Does anyone have any experience with it? This is where I just saw it:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4498732/peer-to-peer-lending

Like I said, I think It's a good thing. The banks need a little competition.

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[kelpdiver 2]

as credit unions are owned by its customers, this is effectively peer to peer lending.

If the banks neglect the needs of the market long enough, others will come and find ways to meet it.

[kallend 2,148]

Reminds me of Jimmy Stewart's Building and Loan in "It's A Wonderful Life".

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[nanook 1]

Reading a little in it, the program seems like a moderate risk to invest in after the bad times are over. They picked a wrong time to come in to fruitition. With the bad economy, investing in this, now, is compared to buying junk bonds.

There's enough percentage of borrowers that shouldn't be getting those loans (there are reasons other than money shortages that a bank won't lend out money) to make this non-competitive to banks now. Some loan programs might as well be payday lenders. Some of them only use FICO scores to determine credit worth.

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[Arvoitus 1]

P2P lending will never, ever in million years compete with the banks simply because with p2p you can only lend money that exists where as banks can lend money that does not exist.

Your rights end where my feelings begin.

[wildcard451 0]

Actually took a little spare cash and put it in Prosper to play with. Over the last year, no defaults in the fist of three years I loaned out. Aggregate 13.5% return over the last year. Not something to base your retirement on, but a fun little diversion.