Prosper.com?

[Deleted]

Does anyone have any experience using Prosper.com? If so, what are the positives and negatives that you have experienced?

I've seen it talked about on the old boards, but I never really looked at those threads. Can it be worth it? Obviously the risks include losing your investment. What are some other risks that are involved?

[shanendoah]

We've been Prosper lenders for years, but recently have been pulling more money out than putting in. All of the changes they went though to be a licensed bank were required, but its been really detrimental to the site. It used to be people who had bad credit and really needed the money would post and hope to get a loan at a non-usurious rates. They posted credit information, but we found the people most likely to pay the complete loan back weren't people with okay or even good credit, it was the folks with bad or non-existent credit who needed it for something important. We helped fund a 19 year old whose horse needed surgery. I felt good on the day she was fully funded, and even better on the day her loan was paid in full.
Now, not just anybody can be approved to ask for a loan on Prosper. I no longer see the "my pet needs surgery" or "I'm trying to get off the pay day loan circle" or even "we're overwhelmed by medical bills" loan requests. Now I mostly see the "help me buy a bigger engagement ring than her best friend has" or "we want a wedding we can't afford" or "help me buy a franchise business", and while these all may technically be better risks, our returns have gone down in the last few years and I no longer get the good feeling from helping people who really need it. At this point, we've stopped pulling money out of Prosper (which we did to help pay some bills since DH has been unemployed), but we're not putting any back in, either.