Prosper has added many new features since I wrote my book over a year ago.
One of these new features is Portfolio Plans, which make automated lending strategies much easier to implement and more robust than the standing orders they replaced.
Another recent feature is lending based on social capital, where a lender can screen listings based on the bids made by verified friends of the borrower or the number of endorsements received.
Prosper has also added a lot of additional screening criteria in the past year, from borrower credit data to employment information to the performance of borrowers on their previous Prosper loans.
I've made my Portfolio Plans public (
PrivateLender's Portfolio Plans), which is another recent feature on Prosper, so that lenders can see how all of these factors can be combined into a conservative lending strategy.
The Ohana Network (started by
islandmele of
Malama Ohana), on the other hand, is a successful network of borrowers and lenders who know each other in real life and bid heavily on each other's listings. Members of this network have a lot of social capital, which I depend on for my lending strategy because I do not require any borrower credit screening when bidding on their listings.
I have so much confidence in these group leaders and group members for determining who are the worthy borrowers that I delegate the authority (but not the responsibility) to them for choosing their group members and who can post listings.
I also do "ladder bidding" where I will bid again on a listing at a higher rate of interest when possible. If I'm happy lending $50 at a 12% rate of interest, for example, I'll be even happier lending $100 at a 14% rate of interest on the same listing if I can win the deal. Portfolio Plans let me implement this strategy quite easily.
(74)
$18.45
(8)
$19.77
(7)
$50.00
See all Editorial Reviews
Roger Steciak sent the following posts to customers who purchased Happy About People-to-People Lending With Prosper.com: How to Lend Money to Friends You've Never Met