My name is Peter Renton and I am the publisher and chief blogger at Lend Academy. I first became interested in peer to peer lending (also called social lending) back in 2008 when the financial crisis sent interest rates tumbling to zero. I had just sold my business and I was looking for a better return on my money.
But first I should explain what peer to peer lending is. Basically, it is a way for investors who have money, to lend directly to borrowers looking to borrow money. It is a win-win for all parties. The investor gets a better return on their money than a traditional savings account or CD and the borrower gets a lower interest rate than they would likely pay for a credit card advance or bank loan.
The two main peer to peer lending companies in the USA are Lending Club and Prosper. While Prosper has been around longer, Lending Club has a much larger monthly new loan volume these days than Prosper. I was about to invest in Prosper back in 2008 when they suddenly entered a “quiet period” where they were getting all their ducks in a row with the SEC. So, I invested in Lending Club and have been very happy with the returns on my money. I have since also invested money with Prosper (they came out of their quiet period in 2009).
The more I read about peer to peer lending and as I continued to receive my monthly statements showing great returns, the more convinced I became that this was a great place for my money. I started reading more and telling my friends about it. Then when I noticed this web site, which used to be called The Social Lending Network, was for sale I jumped at the opportunity to become more involved with this industry.
Which brings us today. The name has changed to Lend Academy but the goal is still the same: to be the number one resource for this burgeoning peer-to-peer lending industry. It can be quite complicated for the new investor or borrower and this site will help you gain a greater level of understanding. Then hopefully you will take the next step and become an active participant by investing or borrowing money. To understand the basics of p2p lending more completely you should start with my free ebook, Understanding Peer to Peer Lending.
I will be sharing my personal perspective as an investor in both Lending Club and Prosper so you can get an idea of the real returns of one investor. I will also be providing useful statistics so you can see overall how the loans are performing at Lending Club and Prosper.
I am not going to hide the fact that I make money from referring people to Lending Club and Prosper. The links in the paragraph above are called affiliate links and I earn a small commission if you open an account with either company after clicking on one of my links or banner ads. You will see links like this throughout my blog posts. But keep in mind that I only include affiliate links to sites that I use myself and I believe in.
If you want to find out more about me here is my LinkedIn page. You can also check my page on Google. Please feel free to contact me at any time through the contact form. I will always try and respond within 24 hours.