Peer to peer lending pioneer, Prosper, turns five today. This means that today, peer to peer lending in the US is officially five years old as well. To celebrate Prosper is giving new borrowers who submit a loan today a little gift. Prosper will make your second loan payment for you (up to $300). Here are the details from the press release yesterday:
To celebrate its fifth anniversary, Prosper will run a special one-day promotion for borrowers tomorrow. For all new loans submitted on February 17, 2011, Prosper will cover the borrower’s second month’s payment up to $300.*
“As a thank you to the Prosper community, we’re pleased to offer this promotion to help borrowers save even more money,” said Chris Larsen, CEO and co-founder of Prosper.com. “Without the support of our members and the hard work of my colleagues, Prosper wouldn’t be what it is today.”
Here is the fine print denoted by the asterisk above:
*To be eligible for the promotion, a borrower must submit a loan listing between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. PT on February 17, 2011, and that loan listing must result in an originated loan. If a borrower meets these criteria, Prosper will credit the borrower’s second loan payment up to $300. The credit will be posted to the borrower’s account within 30 days of receiving the borrower’s first payment. All personal loans are made by WebBank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank. Eligibility for a loan is not guaranteed and requires that a sufficient number of investors commit to fund the loan.
If you are thinking about taking out a loan on Prosper today would be a good day.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.