For those of you the like propser

Found a new place to invest its called zopa. I'm in the process of taking out a loan just to give it a try but baisically here is a cut and paste run down


A Zopa CD is one of the simplest and easiest investments you can make. You fork over an amount of money for a fixed period of time, and in exchange you get a guaranteed promise that at the end of the period, you'll receive your money back plus interest. A Zopa CD works exactly like a certificate of deposit at a bank or brokerage, or a share certificate at a credit union, with one important difference. A Zopa CD has the idea of helping people built right into it. When you invest, you must pick at least one Zopa borrower that you'd like to help. You can help them a little or a lot--that's up to you--and you adjust that by adjusting the rate on your Zopa CD. Once you've chosen your rate, that becomes the final rate on your Zopa CD, and your dividend earnings are set.
We've made it easy for you to see how this works. Just start to Buy a Zopa CD and you'll be walked through the steps of picking borrowers and setting your rate before you even have to apply.

Interesting, but not enough.

The CD rates are somewhat comparable to what you would get from ING or other online banks. And the ING CDs aren't attached to a particular person that can default. I understand that Zopa is insured, but the whole point of lending on Prosper is that you get higher rates of return - if I don't get that with Zopa, I just don't see the benefit.

prosper.com sucks.

I have 40+ loans on there, and 20-25% of them are either
in bankruptcy, collections or late.

From what I can understand Prosper someone can default and your sol thats why it is good to disversify there... But here your really taking a cd from a credit union and telling the credit union to a person. so it is guranteed by the credit union and the only one that gets burnt if the person defaults isa the credit union

crshin2me said:

From what I can understand Prosper someone can default and your sol thats why it is good to disversify there... But here your really taking a cd from a credit union and telling the credit union to a person. so it is guranteed by the credit union and the only one that gets burnt if the person defaults isa the credit union

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Well, that's fine. But if someone already has an account with a bank that offers CDs, whats the point in switching?

Not trying to knock Zopa, but to succeed in business you have to be different. Prosper succeeds because they offer (potentially) higher rates on loans. Zopa is giving generally the same CD rates but the loans are to individuals - that difference really provides little to no value for me to switch to them (as a lender).

festeringZit said:

prosper.com sucks.

I have 40+ loans on there, and 20-25% of them are either
in bankruptcy, collections or late.

Click to expand...

Interesting.

On the loans that are performing OK, are you making decent returns? I think the current general feeling on Prosper is "if I look at my account as a total portfolio, irregardless of defaults (because they will happen), am I still making a higher rate of return than what I would otherwise?".

I know I can make about 4% on my money with ING with little to no risk. So, I would have to make more than that on Prosper (or otherwise) to make it worthwhile, again, irregardless of individual defaults.

I have 6 out, all current. Pick and choose better. You have to weed through all the garbage.

My annual return is just over 14%. I do some HR, but morst C or better. Even C is cutting it close

festeringZit said:

prosper.com sucks.

I have 40+ loans on there, and 20-25% of them are either
in bankruptcy, collections or late.

Click to expand...