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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Person-to-Person Lending [Paperback]

Curtis E. Arnold , Beverly Blair Harzog
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)


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Book Description

April 7, 2009 The Complete Idiot's Guide
Forget credit card companies? make it personal!

The Complete Idiot?s Guide® to Person-to-Person Lending fills readers in on what they need to know, such as how person-to-person lending works, who lends and who borrows, and the advantages and disadvantages of Virgin- Money, Prosper, Zopa, and Facebook?s Lending Club.M

·Loans on Prosper and LendingClub rose to $100 million in 2007; by 2010, the online banking report forecasts $1 billion in person to- person loan originations
·Javelin Strategy & Research (Dec. 2007) predicts that the demand for person-to-person lending services may grow from $38 billion to $159 billion over the next five years.




Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Curtis E. Arnold, a nationally recognized consumer educator and advocate, has been educating consumers about credit cards since 1998, and is the author of How You Can Profit from Credit Cards: Using Credit to Improve Your Financial Life and Bottom Line. Beverly Blair Harzog is a widely published freelance writer specializing in personal finance. She is a former CPA and has an MBA in public relations.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Alpha; 1 edition (April 7, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1592578829
  • ISBN-13: 978-1592578825
  • Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #554,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Curtis Arnold is a nationally recognized consumer educator and advocate. He is the CEO/Founder of CardRatings.com, a website that provides credit card ratings and reviews of over 20,000 offers. Curtis has been educating consumers about credit cards since 1998. He is regularly interviewed and quoted by respected members of the national press regarding consumer credit issues.

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
(8)
4.8 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Good advice for a changing economy July 13, 2009
Format:Paperback
People are fed up with banks, for good reason: too many banks have behaved irresponsibly, looking to milk as much money out of customers in as short a period as possible rather than build a long-term relationship. And, in this economy, many people are finding themselves in need of a loan from family and friends. This book sets out all the different ways that people can lend money to each other to make money (anonymous peer to peer lending sites), help those in need help themselves (microfinance), and borrow money from relatives without destroying family relationships. This is a great guide.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Informative but Beware August 4, 2011
Format:Paperback
I purchased the item from Amazon, arrived in great condition and timely. It is informative and details the various websites where you can purchase the notes and potentially earn more interest for your money. I would caution anyone to be very careful and understand exactly what you are buying. According to the book, each site has a bank that originates the loan, which the borrower pays the fee. Enter the retail investors who purchase the notes and earn interest. The bank makes money originating the loans, ALL the risk is passed on to the note buyers. I am not criticizing the method, but I think everyone should understand that the loan originators are making money and passing on the risk. Same thing banks that banks did with the mortgages.

The book is a good read and explains how the process works.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Overview Of A Growing Industry April 27, 2012
Format:Paperback
Like all guides in the Idiots series, this book is very well put together. This book on person-to-person (P2P) lending consists of 24 chapters broken up into four parts, with two appendices (one for key terms and definitions and one for useful web links on anything and everything related to the topic of P2P lending). Each chapter begins with a bulleted roadmap and ends with a summary of the key ideas presented in the chapter, making it easy for those time-pressed folks to get the main ideas, or for those 'just-the-facts, Ma'am' types.

The writing style was active, easy-going and almost friendly in a way. At points I often got the impression while reading the text that I was having a conversation with someone over coffee about P2P lending. Although chock-full of detail, none of it was presented in a jargon-filled fashion, and any terms and jargon presented were very well defined.

The book presented both sides of the lending-borrowing transaction, and gave good pointers to both sides on how to best navigate this brave new world. It also provided a good summary of developments in P2P up to about 2008 thereabouts, and while much has happened in the space since then, the book accurately captured the general ideas very well, and did a good job of pointing the reader in the right direction for more information.

I originally picked the book up, hoping to learn more about participating within this industry, principally as a lender with an eye to diversifying my investment portfolio. Gradually, I came to realize that it may well be possible for me to participate as a borrower, and get more attractive terms and conditions on borrowings than from traditional lenders to boot! Still, I have a few misgivings about P2P lending- specifically from the lender side, and I believe that I will refrain from participation in the space until such time as these are sufficiently explored and addressed. Chief among these concerns are: 1) default rates (these seemed rather low, given the kind of clientele base P2P lending generally attracts), 2) the potential for discrimination against prospective borrowers (and the legal ramifications associated with it), 3) the potential for identity theft- on both sides of the transaction and 4) track records (only the passage of time will help here).

In sum, this book serves as a very useful introduction and very accessible starting point to a possibly lucrative (for the would-be lender) and money-saving (for the potential borrower) activity. I highly recommend it to all interested readers on the subject of P2P lending, or the broader topic of micro-finance.
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