David Lê, ThinkViet

In previous “Play Hui On The Net” tips, you’ve learned how to create a loan listing on Prosper.com to borrow money to start a business, pay off old debts with high interest rates, or to take care of other personal needs you may have. You also learned how to join a Prosper group to improve your chance of getting a lower interest rate, and how to make that loan listing “active”, so that potential lenders can start bidding on it. Today you’ll learn several more important answers concerning the management of your loan listing.

How do you view your loan listing?

Log on to Prosper, click on “Your Account,”, then go to “Borrowing;”; there you will find a link to your loan listing. Just click on this listing title to view it. This page will show the progress of your listing, such as how many days are left for bidding, the current interest rate, the individual bids the listing has received, and the amounts of each bid. Bidding from lenders will continue until your loan listing closes, either 3, 5, 7 or 10 days after the listing was created, depending on what you specified.

Is there a fee for getting a loan on Prosper?

You pay a standard fee for obtaining a loan on Prosper: 1% of your loan amount if your loan is matched and funded. The 1% fee is deducted from the amount of your loan at origination. For example, if you obtain a $5,000 loan, the 1% closing fee would be $50, and the total amount you would receive would be $4,950. Once your loan is funded, you will be responsible for making monthly payments of principal and interest on the loan. As long as you make timely payments, there will be no additional fees for you to pay.

How do you revise a loan listing?

You can’t revise a loan listing once you have created it. You can only cancel it and create another listing. If you don’t like the interest rate bids your loan listing is generating, or change your mind about getting the loan, or just want to revise its description to request a different amount or interest rate, you can always withdraw the loan listing. You can do this any time before the bidding for the loan listing closes, without paying any fee or penalty. You can then re-create a new listing and post it again on Prosper.

What if your listing doesn’t get 100% funded?

If your listing runs out of time and is not 100% funded, no loan will be created. You can try again, by creating a new listing and asking lenders to bid again. If you had trouble attracting enough bids the first time, you may consider lowering the amount requested and/or raising the interest rate you’re willing to pay to attract more lenders. You can use Prosper’s historical loan rates table to get an idea of the average interest rates at which loans similar to yours have been funded.

What is early funding of a loan?

If 100% of the loan amount gets bid before the listing expires, and you are satisfied with the interest rate at which the funds have been offered, you have the option of receiving your funds early instead of waiting for the listing to close. Other people may let the bidding continue for a while longer, in the hope that more lenders will bid and cause the interest rate to go down further. You have the freedom to fund your loan at any time and at any the interest rate your listing has generated.

Still need to learn more details about “Play Hui On The Net,”, a convenient, safe, and attractive way of obtaining personal loans from people such as yourself? Come browse the Prosper website itself, at www.prosper.com, or visit the “Choi Hui” section www.oneviet.com/prosperen/ to read up on this and other tips that have been written on this exciting new marketplace.

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