Sunday, April 6, 2008

Both a Borrower and a Lender Be!


More and more we're hearing about peer-to-peer lending networks. It seems to me that these networks will become increasingly more important in the days ahead.

Through various blogs and magazines, these three networks have caught my attention:

Prosper.com
Lendingclub.com
Kiva.com

I hope to become a lender and a borrower through one or more of these in the near future. I love the idea helping someone out. I like win-win situations. If I can lend money at 10-15% to someone who's paying 20% or more on credit card debt, then benefits both of us. Also, these networks allow you to lend small amounts as well as large. And, I might want to borrow in the future for a franchise idea that I'm considering. I've signed up for Prosper.com using my oldest son's savings account in the hope that I'll be able to get a better return on his money than his current <1% interest! It takes a day or two for the process to get started so I'm still waiting to officially become a member. I've enjoyed looking through the lists--the majority are for debt consolidation but there's a diversity of requests-business loans, remodeling, honeymoons, etc.

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