Idiot's Guide Authors, Arnold and Harzog, Explain Benefits of Peer-to-Peer Lending

Little Rock, AR (PRWEB) August 4, 2009

With the recent come back of Prosper.com the authors of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Person to Person Lending, Curtis Arnold and Beverly Harzog are available to discuss what this means for the consumer.

"One of the big issues right now is that people are still afraid to borrow and lend money. Not much has changed for borrowers, but the recent changes at Prosper offer increased protection for lenders," says author Harzog. Harzog and Arnold highlight the following benefits:

•     Minimum FICO score is raised to 640. This, theoretically, decreases the risk for lenders because some of the new borrowers will have better credit scores than what lenders were used to on Prosper.
•     The new Notes trading platform allows lenders to trade their P2P loans. This option gives lenders more flexibility with their money. Instead of waiting for 3 years to get their money back, they can sell the note on the trading platform and get their money back sooner. Lenders have more liquidity with their investments. This is a huge plus for lenders.
•     Prosper still has the direct P2P platform, so now lenders can choose between that and the trading platform.
•     Lender returns are around 7.06% right now.

According to Ed Kountz, a consumer payments analyst at the market research firm Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, MA, the industry may grow to more than $100 billion in annual loans in 2012 as borrowers seek ways to reduce their costs.

To arrange an author interview or to request a review copy, please contact Jessica Austin at jessica@cardratings.com or 479-452-0019.

More information follows on The Complete Idiot's Guide to Person-to-Person Lending:

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 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 479-452-0019 for a review copy or to arrange an interview with the author.

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