Let's talk about peer-to-peer lending!!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Let's talk about peer-to-peer lending!!

MC Fruit Stripe: Nov 26, 2002; around and around we go

I am interested in peer to peer lending, but I have what is probably an absurd question. For those of you already involved, what is your end game? I just imagine a point where I feel like the bottom has dropped out or I am ready to move on for any number of reasons, but all of my money is tied up for a further 3 years. I just worry about some sort of other end of the bell curve scenario wherein Lendingclub falls on hard times and users stop paying their loans, and I am stuck with a bunch of defaulting loans. How does one plan for the down times?

Okay really that's like 3 separate questions on 3 separate topics all stemming from the same concerns. It just feels like getting money in will take a week, and getting out will take years.

Also, does anyone actually pay attention to the "you must have 70k liquid net worth, 100k in CA" thing?

# ¿ Jun 26, 2013 02:31

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 22:45

MC Fruit Stripe: Nov 26, 2002; around and around we go

Toaster Ding posted:

So.... anyone who can help explain what's happening to a complete idiot (me)?

About a month ago I threw some money in Prosper just as an experiment. I have 10 notes at $25 each. Well sometime in the past few days I got my first payment back into my account. The note was for 20k at 10.3% for 3 years. Except instead of the $0.80 I was expecting as my first payment I got $20 back - $19.91 principal and $0.08 interest. My principal balance is listed as $5.09 now. I'm assuming the borrower made some sort of huge payment early instead of the slow trickle I was expecting?
Following that - assuming the borrowers next payment is as big as the previous one am I looking at only getting $0.16 in interest instead of ~$2 or whatever due to early repayment? And for anyone familiar with Prosper - is there any sort of way to see what sort of payments the borrower is making against the total balance of the loan? The note listing just has the basic info as always.

If I'm completely confused about what's happening here or there's some better way to get info, I'd love it if someone could enlighten me.

Yeah I'd love to know the answer to this because it sounds like dude made a payment of like, $16,000 and that's patently absurd.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2013 08:27

MC Fruit Stripe: Nov 26, 2002; around and around we go

I have some money on Lending Club now, and I'm picking out a few notes. Am I right in finding that the biggest thing I'm looking for so far is lies? Because I am seeing some whoppers.

30k in "moving expenses"
Claims of making $20k+/mo
Claims of having almost no monthly expenses despite a huge amount of debt
Debt consolidation amounts that have nothing to do with the revolving debt

I'm basically just playing bullshit detector, no?

# ¿ Jul 5, 2013 23:18

MC Fruit Stripe: Nov 26, 2002; around and around we go

Well, I've invested in 33 notes on LendingClub!

I worked out a quick formula which'll tell me when I break even on each note. Essentially, if the person defaults before X, I lose - any payments after X represent my profit. So I guess I have 27 months to wonder if this was a good idea or not

MC Fruit Stripe fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Jul 8, 2013

# ¿ Jul 8, 2013 07:03

MC Fruit Stripe: Nov 26, 2002; around and around we go

Dazzleberries posted:

I would suggest creating a filter and then operating off of that primarily.

Oh no doubt, but once you get 75% of the way there via filter, the rest is bullshit detection. Yeah, it could be a typo, but the attention to detail that the title "home imporvement loan" gives off means something, as do suspiciously large incomes, lack of capitalization, lovely two word answers to questions, etc. After I get through the filters it's just a "what kind of feeling am I getting from this loan" thing.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2013 17:26

MC Fruit Stripe: Nov 26, 2002; around and around we go

$8,600 invested by 5 investors? Sheesh, people are ballers.

I've earned almost a dollar in interest so far. I'm home free.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2013 18:12

MC Fruit Stripe: Nov 26, 2002; around and around we go

SpelledBackwards posted:

I went to sign up today too, but unfortunately Texas only allows for FolioFN as well, and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. Normally this state lets me do all kinds of crazy things with my money! I guess I'll put a smaller amount of cash in and feel it out.

Uh, hmm, now I wish I had checked on that. I am moving to Texas in 6 months and just bought a bunch of notes on LendingClub.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2013 20:01

MC Fruit Stripe: Nov 26, 2002; around and around we go

baquerd posted:

Looks like lending club may be selling out of loans tonight - anyone seen that before?

Is that what that is?

Okay that makes more sense than my fear that the loving walls were falling down. I've been seeing fewer and fewer available loans, yet their statistics indicate record growth, so okay, just not as many borrowers as investors right now I guess.

There is currently ONE loan available. Sheesh.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2013 05:34