David Lê, ThinkViet

Making A Fair Return On Your Money

Has it ever bothered you that if you put money into a bank, either by opening a savings account, or if you buy certificates of deposit (CDs), the interest you earn is so low, compared to the interest the bank would charge YOU if you borrowed money from them? Now, you could elect to go play the stock market with your money, or start investing in real estate, surely they must pay more. However the stock market is never a sure thing – you could lose all of your investments just as likely as make some money, and real estate has been on a downturn lately, and you’d really have to put down a lot of cash to start speculating on housing. A better alternative? Become a LENDER on Prosper, where you can really earn a FAIR return on your money.

Why Lend On Prosper?

On Prosper, you can fund loans directly to people, and you decide what is a fair rate of return for your money. You browse all the loan requests people have posted, with the amounts they want and the interest rates they’re willing to pay, and you bid on the loans with the rates that match your criteria. When your bid is successful, your money goes toward a loan, and you get a payment each month, directly from her account to yours. Prosper takes care of all the calculations, record keeping, and electronic transfer of funds between lenders and borrowers, seamlessly and securely.

To minimize loss from loan defaults, you can make many small loans instead of a few big ones, thus spreading your risk out and ensuring a more reliable return. This is called diversification and the pros do it every day. You can also look to borrower groups with a good record of member payments and bid on loans to members of those groups only. Each borrower on Prosper has a credit grade, and that grade, along with the reputation of the group she belongs to, determines the interest rate she can obtain from lenders. As a result, you have a wide selection when deciding which loans to bid on, how much to lend, and at what return rates. All this within the convenient, fast, and secure marketplace set up by Prosper.

How Do I Become A Lender?

First you’ll need to set up a lender account on Prosper. Then you can start browsing loan listings, pick the groups and individuals you want to make loans to, and start bidding on those loans. You can start with as little as $50 on Prosper and add as much oney as you want to your account. Because borrowers can only borrow up to $25,000, that’s all you can lend to one borrower at a time, but you can bid to fund as many loans to as many people as you want.

If you’re interested in borrowing money instead, find out more about Prosper and “Playing Hui On The Net” by visiting the page A Borrower. You can also join one of several Vietnamese groups already set up on Prosper, among them the ThinkViet group, and become a lender helping out Vietnamese borrowers you’ll find on Prosper.

David Le is in charge of marketing and public relations at ThinkViet. He can be reached at david@thinkviet.net.