Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Just Funded First Loan at Lending Club Peer-2-Peer Lending

With Prosper.com shut down for a significant period of time going forward, I opened up an account at LendingClub.com to start originating loans. I transferred $100 into my new LendingClub.com account via PayPal without any added fees.

The site is not as good as Prosper's. There are no pictures and the search / filter option at Lending Club is crude, relative to Prosper's filter tools.

Interest rates on loans at this site are also lower than that at Prosper. Lending Club charges a lenders a 1% fee on all payments received.

So far, I've only discovered two good things about LendingClub.com

(1.) They are open, while Prosper is closed.
(2.) Minimum loan amount is $25.

I ended my user experience funding just one loan to a US Air Force service member who had orders elsewhere and had to move out of his house. Unfortunately, the member needs to make some improvements to his bathrooms to make his empty house marketable as a rental property. I chose this "D" rated loan because the member should have a secure job for the next two to three years. Generally speaking, the military won't move you to another job without you owing the government significant time at the new job to complete a tour. I've been burned in the past funding "D" rated loans. Unfortunately, this was the only satisfactory loan (meeting my criteria) that gave me a net return after fees > 10%.

I'll likely post a little more about LendingClub.com in the coming months.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alex:

Thanks for posting about your experience and welcome to Lending Club.

Feel free to send us comments or feedback directly at feedback@lendingclub.com, and we will be happy to address them.

Happy Lending!

Rob G from Lending Club

Brian said...

I agree, the fees do seem quite high. Isn't there a 1% service charge on top of that or am I reading their FAQ wrong?

Keep us updated on your experiences there! I've been looking for somewhere to invest some money since Prosper.com locked their doors.