The Dumbest Thing About Prosper Peer-2-Peer Lending (Read This If You Want to Know A Lending Hack/Trick)

Ok, I'm seething mad. I just got off the phone w/ a very professional customer service rep at Prosper.com. However, it doesn't make up for the fact that Prosper is soooo stupid for applying the Reverse Dutch Auction programming code to automatic funding loans.

Don't understand what I just said? Ok, normally, a non-automatic funding loan will get the interest rate bid down by competing lenders. This is good for borrowers and is an excellent application of Reverse Dutch Auction principles.

Use of this is completely and utterly stupid for automatic funding loans. These loans have the lighting bolt symbol and end regardless of time open when the borrower has received 100% funding from the pool of bidders.

Here's the rub, I was outbid on loan 25608

I made my bid at 2:34pm as "WellVersed" when the loan was less than 50% fulfilled (I think it was around 20 or 30% fullfilled). Then, 6 other bidders successfully piled in after me.

How can you get outbid on an automatic funding loan? In this case, first-come-first serve does not necessarily apply to lenders. So long as a loan remains unfunded by just one cent, anybody can come in and bid as large an amount as they want and kick out prior bidders so long as their "minimum interest rate" is lower than enough other bidders.

From now on, I'm entering 0.00 percent for the lowest interest rate i'm willing to accept on automatic funding loans. I RECOMMEND YOU DO THE SAME if you don't want to get kicked out of an automatic funding loan bid.

Effective July 28th, Emigrant Direct Raising Savings Account Interest Rate

Just received a piece of mail from Emigrant Direct. Inside, it states that from this Friday through Monday their website will be down for upgrades.

It provides a 10 digit access code. I suspect, this is to allow you to access the website once it gets redesigned. Many people have their computer memorize their logins so providing this helps those of us who do.

On the 28th of July, Emigrant Direct will raise their savings account interest rate to 5.15%. This would move Emigrant Direct into the #2 spot on bankrate.com's listings (behind OneUnited Bank's 5.25% account).

Please note that Bankrate.com gives Emigrant Direct a 2 star financial rating. Think twice before entrusting Emigrant Direct with huge sums of money.

We'll continue to keep a small amount with them b/c of their competitive rate. However, we'll take our money out if any additional rumblings of bad credit ratings arise.

Read This If: You're Interested in How Much The Federal Government MAY Intentionally Manipulate Financial Markets

Found a great blog article that while it seems a bit of conjecture, I suspect a number of the points made are on the money... Not so certain about the Fed Reserve Hedge Fund run out of the Caribbean though.

The article states that the "The Secretary of the Treasury, Chairman of the Fed, Chairman of the SEC, and Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are known as the 'Four Financial Dictators.' Their job is to grow and preserve the power of the state to socially and financially engineer society."

The article integrates discussion of executive order 12631 and the absurd run-up in GM lately to reinforce article validity.

Here's the Article: "General Motors, Market Engineering, and Confidence Protection"

Check Out Emigrant Directs New 5.0% Interest Rate

I was so close to opening an HSBC online savings account until this evening when I found out that Emigrant Direct had boosted their interest rate to 5.0%. This should prove convenient since we already have an account with them.

This, coupled with an NFCU 6.25% @ 18months/$15k min CD appears to be a good combination.

Testing Out the Standing Order (Auto Bid) Feature of Prosper.com (Peer-to-Peer Lending)

It's early Monday morning and I just set my first standing order on prosper.com. Here's what how I set it:

(1) amount to lend: $50
(2) maximum per loan: $50
(3) risk adjusted interest rate: 14%
(4) collection agency: AllianceOne
(5) include only those that have automatic funding feature set
(6) include only those with verified bank account
(7) only include those that are group members
(8) only support the following groups: DocProsper's Credit Community; Professors and Univeristy Grads; Ourtopia; Due Diligence; Yale Alumni; Fanafi Financial; Utopia Loans
(9) I'll add my group (Feng Shui Financing) as soon as it's activated within the next two weeks.

I'm doing this for the following reasons:
(1) I believe that as the available money for lending grows, so to will the list of those using the standing order bidding system.
(2) As this list of standing order bidding system users grows, the number of loans fully funded within 5 minutes or less will grow substantially.
(3) Many of these ultra-quick funded loans represent a superior risk vs. reward situation for lenders.