In early 2008 Jillian Kay was drowning in debt. She had multiple credit cards with interest rates of 25% or higher. Then one of her cards increased their rate to over 30% when she missed a payment (it was just a simple oversight on her part). But that was the last straw, she knew something had to be done.
After some research online she found peer to peer lender Prosper and filled out the loan application. It is a pretty simple process and she was able to complete the application quickly. When the loan was funded and she saw the rate was going to be 12.4% she broke down crying. She could really begin the process of digging herself out from underneath all that credit card debt. She used the money immediately to pay off her 30%+ credit card and the remainder went to pay down her other balances.
Now, almost three years later she has been diligently making her monthly payments and her Prosper loan will be paid off in two months. A few weeks ago she received an email from Prosper letting her know they had a new system in place that did away with the old bidding process. Jillian thought now would be great time to apply for another loan and get rid of her credit card debt once and for all.
Her $15,000 loan on Prosper funded in 13 minutes
So one night before bed she filled out the application and applied for her second loan. She put in a complete description of how she was going to use the money and then, in her words, “let the numbers speak for themselves.” She felt confident she would get funded. When she woke up in the morning and checked for loan status she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her loan had fully funded overnight but what was most amazing was her loan for $15,000 (Prosper rating B at 13.4%) was funded in just 13 minutes. Wow, she thought. This new system really was working for her.
With this latest loan Jillian expects she will be completely free of credit card debt by the end of the year. You could hear the joy in her voice as she was saying this. She will only have her Prosper loan and her old student loan so she will really be able to focus on ramping up her savings.
Stories like Jillian’s represent what is great about peer to peer lending. Here is someone who could not apply to a bank for a loan but was drowning in credit card debt. She was able to dig herself out of the hole through the help of Prosper and p2p lending.
