Prosper

Prosper was the first peer-to-peer lending solution of its kind with over 2 million members and $2 billion in funded loans since 2005. Finally, borrowers could seek alternative lending options with more reasonable interest rates than your local bank. When your entire business model is transacted online by keeping costs at a minimum, it attracts more investors too. Aside from the 1% annual service fee, Prosper takes an additional one-time fee of 0.5% to 4.5% when the loan is funded.

Creating a Prosper loan listing is easy and just takes a few minutes - Provide basic information about yourself, review loan offers, and wait for lenders to invest. That’s it. Funds should hit your account within a couple business days. To avoid processing delays, be sure to fill out the application completely and honestly. Your credit will be run but it will not affect it in any way.

The minimum loan amount is $2,000 and the max is $35,000 with payment terms of three or five years. APRs start at 5.99% for highest rated borrowers and go as high as 36%. There are no hidden fees or prepayment penalties and your interest rate will never change. The average APR for borrowers was around 18%. Prosper is not available in Iowa, Maine and North Dakota. For borrower customer service, call toll-free (866) 615-6319.

The closer you get to your funding goal, the better your chances are so be sure to ask friends and family to invest. The interest you pay goes to your investors so not only can your friends help you and your success, they can get fairly reasonable investment returns off you as well. For questions about investing, visit prosper.com or call (877) 646-5922.