Right now is the perfect time to borrow money from a peer to peer lending site such as Prosper or Lending Club. Why? There is less competition between borrowers.
Here are some hard numbers to support this. Let’s start with Lending Club. Normally there are around 450-500 loans available for investors. For example, as reported on Twitter on October 28 there were 527 loans to invest in. Today as of 12:30pm EST there are only 335 loans. Investors looking to invest new money or re-invest their interest earned have fewer choices, which means a better likelihood your loan will be funded.
Prosper is an even better deal right now for borrowers. With their recent change in lending models, there are very few loans available to invest in; as of this writing there were just 16 loans. My guess is that all of these 16 loans will get funded simply because there are so few alternatives for investors.
Now, there are credit standards, so not just anyone can apply for a loan. But if you have decent credit and a good FICO score (more than 660 for Lending Club and 640 for Prosper) then you have an excellent chance of getting funded. Here are links to the eligibility requirements for borrowers for Lending Club and Prosper.
If you are on the fence about getting a loan or are thinking of waiting until after the New Year, stop what you are doing. Act now. There may never be a better chance of getting your loan funded than right now. When you are borrowing money you are competing against all the other borrowers for the investors dollars. Right now, the competition is light. I am guessing within a week or two of the New Year the number of borrowers will dramatically increase. So get in now.
