<$Monday, April 2, 2007$>
Not gonna Prosper today
| My Prosper listing just expired, with only 6% funding. Bummer, though not surprising. There were about a dozen messages in my inbox this morning from Group Leaders inviting me to join their groups and relist with their backing. Some of them seemed sincere, and some of them made it obvious that they never so much as glanced at my listing. I'm still dithering on whether or not to relist. I think I'm going to do some research on my chances of getting a bank loan at a better rate, and I'm going to research some of these groups, and then I'll make up my mind. There's certainly no reason to rush. Labels: Prosper |
<$Friday, March 30, 2007$>
Adventures in Prosper-ity
| Prosper.com is a pretty recent discovery for me, having only learned of its existence a few weeks ago. But in that time I did a lot of researching, soul-searching and discussing with my husband (you can read all about it here, I signed up and went through the borrower verification process in the hopes of borrowing enough to consolidate my credit cards. On Monday, I finally posted my listing. I was immediately advised that the interest rate I asked for is too low for my credit grade (when you sign up, Prosper obtains your credit score from Experian and assigns it a letter grade. Mine is a high D). With only two days until my listing expires and only three bids, I suspect that they're right. Now I'm a little uncertain on how to proceed. Once my listing expires I could relist at a higher rate, on the theory that the high interest rate will make my listing more attractive to lenders, it will have no problem getting fully funded with time to spare, and at that rate the competition will kick in and my interest rate will get bid down to something more manageable. But I'm paranoid that that last part won't happen, and I'll get stuck with a rate that's almost as high as what I'm already paying, and monthly payments that are also just as high, and that would defeat the entire purpose of taking out the loan. I'm wondering if I should try to get a bank loan before I relist. We haven't even tried that option, because we both just kind of figured that with our low credit scores we wouldn't be able to get one without a co-signer, and we really don't want to involve a third party if we don't have to. I just think co-signing on a loan is a bad idea and not something to be done, and I hate the idea of asking anybody to do it. At this point, though, do we have anything to lose by applying for a lower rate bank loan? I don't really see how we do. I'm also concerned/immeasurably pissed off about the over limit alert that just hit my credit report, thanks to Discover heaping service charges (one of which, an identity theft protection charge, I didn't even realize I had signed up for) on top of my not-quite-but-almost maxed out account right before closing the statement so that I couldn't possibly post a payment in time to fix it. When I posted my listing on Monday, my credit grade was low, but my report was totally clean going back five years. I don't know how this new pimple will affect my chances for getting a loan with either a bank or Prosper. I'm just praying that it won't impact my score, and I'm also disputing it and trying to get it removed. So anyway, that's where I currently stand with Prosper: 3% funded, two days to go, and having doubts as to whether that's really the way to go, at least until I've tried another option. I've got the weekend to think about it and talk it over with my husband, but if anybody's got any advice that could sway my decision either way, I'd really love to hear it. Labels: credit cards, debt consolidation, evil, Prosper |