Peer-to-peer lending site Prosper recently received another round of VC money and it appears that they are offering a new iPad 2 promotion to attract enough lenders to match their borrower demand. If you open a new lender account by June 30, 2011 and have a certain amount of funded notes by July 21, 2011, you can earn one of the following bonuses:
- $5,000 minimum (to $9,999) for an iPod Nano, 8 GB ($149 value)
- $10,000 minimum (to $19,999) for a set of Bose QuietComfort 15 Noise-Cancelling Headphones ($299 value)
- $20,000+ for an iPad 2 32 GB WiFi model ($599 value)
These are all pretty high investment amounts, and unless you have a lot of money you’re looking to deploy, I’d recommend wading in gradually and spreading your investments across as many different borrowers as possible. P2P lending has a longer track record now, but you are still basically lending money to people who are looking for a cheaper alternative to credit cards. I’m not surprised there are more borrowers than lenders; rates start at 7.4%. You can see overall performance data at LendStats.com.
If you do become a lender, be on the lookout for their “featured listings”, which currently offer a 4% upfront rebate on investments. Rebates are paid within 60 days of the date that your bid is placed. On $5,000 of investments, that would be $200. The fine print specifically states that you can double dip in this way:
Invested funds may also be used to qualify for Featured Listings promotions, but otherwise such funds cannot be applied to other promotional offers.
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That’s really great that they have these promotions! I only wish I could still be using Prosper. I used to live in NY where I could invest but now that I’ve moved to Texas, I’m not able to anymore.
I still look at the loans available and there are tons out there that are capable of getting you a very good return and I know for the few loans that I did have, I made a pretty nice return on them, easily covering any defaults (only 1 for me). For those of you out there that haven’t joined or aren’t sure, I’d highly recommend Prosper!
Nice post. It will not apply to me as I live in TX.
Are there any other web sites out there where you can lend?
Hmm, I wonder if the ipad2 will get you a 1099 form or not. Seems like the way they word their statement is only bonuses over $599, so it may just be under the limit, though getting the 4% may just make that irrelevant anyways. Of course you’re supposed to report it on your taxes anyways, 1099 or no. That’s one of the reasons I’m not much a fan of the pop consumer items instead of just cash returns. I never value them at full retail price, so paying tax as if they were ‘income’ always seems like a poor deal to me.
“another round of VC money”
Please explain what is VC money
I’m not a big fan of the consumer items either, but if the iPad deal was for a lower investment amount, I’d probably try for it.
VC = venture capital money. Prosper is still a private start-up company.