Can a High Risk (HR) Borrower Obtain a Loan from Prosper.com?

I’m not very shy when it comes to writing about Prosper. I believe it has the potential to help many people as it has helped me. I was thinking about it, and some of you reading may have lower credit than I do and might be thinking, “Could this work for me?”

I had the wonderful opportunity of interviewing Spicee. She was a High Risk (HR) Borrower who had a successful loan listing. She is also the group leader of TruCheck Lending Solutions. She has a lot of great advice about her experience to share with everyone:

What made you decide to try Prosper for a loan?

I am a single mother of two daughters. In 2003, the year my oldest daughter started college, I had to unexpectedly retire on disability due to illness. Even after retiring and having to manage on a fixed income, I was still somehow able to manage my household as well as the balance of her tuition that financial aid did not cover.

This year was going to be a challenge since I now had another daughter starting college in the fall. I needed to pay her matriculation fees and housing deposit during the summer in order to hold her spot in the upcoming fall semester. I also needed to plan for book and supplies as well.

One evening while watching the news, Clark Howard did a consumer report on this new concept called “people-to-people” lending through a website called Prosper.com. I decided to go onto the website to read more information on the concept.

Initially, my first thought was, “this sounds too good.” After reading through the site a couple of times, I decided to register. Since I was no longer employed, I had not tried obtaining any credit because I felt no one would extend credit to someone on a fixed income.

Also, I thought that I could “kill two birds with one stone” so to speak by borrowing the funds on Prosper to cover the money required upfront for school and purchasing laptops, books, and other supplies my girls needed this fall. By doing this, I would only have one bill instead of several different bills per month where school was concerned.

How “personal” were Lenders with you? Did they contact you to ask additional questions or to provide advice?

When I registered, Prosper had only been advertised to the public for a month or so. I think everyone; lenders and borrowers were basically feeling their way through the process. While reading through the site, I discovered the discussion forums. I registered and began interacting with the people there. I advertised my listing and fielded questions from potential lenders as to why I needed the loan and how it would be repaid. I listed a breakdown of my budget in my loan listing and was upfront in all of my responses to the lenders participating in the forums.

I had one lender in particular who had already placed a bid on my loan email me stating that if I could provide proof of my income, he would feel comfortable with bidding additional funds. Before I could completely gather all the info he requested, he wrote back telling me not to bother as he felt comfortable with me through my participation in the forums that I would be a good candidate for funding and placed quite a bit on my loan. All of the lenders were extremely helpful with offering advice.

Overall, do you feel that Prosper is a good avenue for those seeking loans, especially those with low credit scores?

I believe that Prosper is a great place for individuals with any type of credit to obtain a loan. People need money for a variety of reasons however, if someone has low to no credit, it is extremely difficult to obtain credit. Prosper has created an avenue for sub-prime borrowers to get out of financial binds and began the road to gaining or improving credit.

Why do you feel that your loan request was successful?

I think that my loan was successful because I was persistent and believed in what I was trying to accomplish. I actively participated in the forums advertising my listing while learning as much as I could about credit and borrowing. I was honest, open and upfront about my situation

What advice would you give someone that is thinking of borrowing money with Prosper?

First of all, Prosper is not a charity. It is a site where people lend out their hard earned money to individuals basically with low to no credit on the basis that it will be paid back.

If someone is looking to obtain funding on Prosper, I would suggest that they:

1. Read through the information on the forums. There is a wealth of information there.
2. Join the forums and actively participate in the discussions. Get to know the lenders there and building a rapport with them.
3. Be honest and open about their situation.
4. If they decide to post a listing requesting a loan, be able to provide detailed answers concerning their credit data.

Finally, how satisfied are you with your Prosper Experience?

I am extremely satisfied with my Prosper experience. So much so that I have started my own group on the site to aid individuals in getting funded. I truly believe in the concept of people-to-people lending and want to see Prosper thrive.

Also, since I am no longer employed, I can devote an enormous amount of time to developing my group thus helping prosper to grow; not to mention the forums are addictive!

Thanks Spicee for the Interview :)

Posted by Tricia on August 15, 2006 at 11:48 AM in Prosper Borrowing |
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  1. Sally Parrott Ashbrook responded:
    Posted: August 15th, 2006 at 12:56 pm

    Very interesting! Thanks for sharing your interview.

  2. freedumb responded:
    Posted: August 16th, 2006 at 7:53 pm

    Err, no matter how much I hear about Prosper…I still have some hesitation…I’m not sure what it is. I guess a majority stems from dealing with fraud…I’m glad you are finding success with Prosper though.

  3. Tricia responded:
    Posted: August 17th, 2006 at 7:52 pm

    Sally - your welcome :)

    Freedumb - yeah, there is a risk of fraud and there have been some borrowers who have defaulted. But there are some genuine people on there just looking for some hope to get out of rough spot (there’s quite a few people trying to get out of the payday loan cycle and those are horrid!). I hope to borrow on there one day, but I know how I want to do it since I’ve had the insight of being a borrower. I think they key to combat fraud is to try to keep it personal.

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