Recently Released Idiot's Guide Explores the World of Person-to-Person Lending

Little Rock, AR (PRWEB) April 22, 2009

Thanks to the economic crisis, individuals who need a loan - to buy a car, grow a small business, or put a child through college - often find themselves out of luck when they turn to a commercial bank for help. With billions of toxic assets tying up resources, many banks are unable or willing to loan money to anyone whose credit score is less than perfect.

As a result, more and more individuals are turning to person-to-person lending, enabled through Internet sites like Facebook's Lending Club. Person-to-person lending is a growing trend thanks to the sagging economy: Lending Club new loans are up 40% over year-ago levels.

Risks and Rewards
Online person-to-person (or people-to-people or peer-to-peer) lending takes advantage of the lack of overhead, thereby reducing the costs and fees found in traditional institutional lending. But like any financial transaction, online person-to-person lending/borrowing is not without risks.

The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Person-to-Person Lending (ISBN: 9781592578825, April 2009, Alpha Books, $19.95) tells readers how to reduce risks and maximize rewards by explaining:

• How online person-to-person lending works
• Who lends and who borrows in person-to-person lending
• The relative and comparative advantages and disadvantages of VirginMoney, Prosper, Zopa, and Facebook's Lending Club
• What the risks are to both lenders and borrowers

Curtis E. Arnold (Little Rock, AR), a nationally recognized consumer educator and advocate, has been educating consumers about credit cards since 1998, and is the author of How You Can Profit from Credit Cards: Using Credit to Improve Your Financial Life and Bottom Line. He is the founder of CardRatings.com, the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. Arnold is regularly interviewed by the national press regarding consumer credit issues, including NPR, Dow Jones Newswire, CNN/Money, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Associate Press, and Money magazine. He serves on the Advisory Board for The Center for Consumer Financial Services at Rochester Institute of Technology and currently serves as co-chair of the Arkansas chapter of the Jump$tart Coalition for Financial Literacy.

Beverly Blair Harzog has an MBA and is a former CPA. She's a professional journalist who writes about personal finance and lifestyle topics for national consumer magazines, websites, and custom publications. Her work has appeared in Bankrate.com, Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Gardens, Wealth Manager, CreditCards.com, Health, Navy Federal, Your Business, Cooking Light, Natural Health, Natural Solutions, The Rotarian, makinglifebetter.com, and more.

Please contact Jessica Austin at jessica(at)cardratings.com or 479-452-0019 for a review copy or to arrange an interview with the author.

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