Who are the borrowers?

A Prosper borrower is any person who is a U.S. resident with a bank account and a social security number. After passing Prosper's anti-fraud and identity checks, borrowers can request unsecured loans from $1,000 to $25,000 at rates they select. Borrowers should join a group to ensure they get access to the best rates. Prosper allows borrowers to post listings on the platform regardless of their credit or income.

What exactly happens if I'm late?

Below is the schedule that Prosper follows in the event of a borrower missing a payment due to insufficient funds (NSF). At any point in this process, if your outstanding payment is paid in full, your account will be returned to "Current" status.

One week before payment is due

• You will receive an email from Prosper indicating the date and amount of your upcoming payment.

Day 0: First payment attempt

• On the day your payment is due, Prosper will attempt to withdraw payment from your bank account.

Day 1-5: First failed payment

• You will be charged a failed payment fee of up to $5, depending on your state lending limits. Failed payment fees are collected by Prosper.
• You will receive an email from Prosper indicating the amount due, fees accrued, and notifying you about upcoming payment attempts.

Day 8: Failed payment notification

• You will receive another email from Prosper indicating the amount due, fees accrued, and notifying you about upcoming payment attempts.

Day 10: Second payment attempt

• Prosper will attempt to withdraw payment from your bank account a second time.

Day 16: Second failed payment notification; late fee assessed

• You will be charged a second failed payment fee of up to $5, depending on your state lending limits. Failed payment fees are collected by Prosper.
• You will be charged a late payment fee for being more than 15 days late on your monthly payment. Late fees are the greater of $15 or 5% of the unpaid installment amount, depending on your state lending limits. Late fees are passed on to lenders; Prosper does not profit from late fees.
• You will receive an email from Prosper indicating the amount due, fees accrued, and notifying you about upcoming payment attempts.
• If you are a member of a group, your group leader will receive an email from Prosper notifying them about your delinquency and the effect of your delinquency on the group's reputation.

Day 22: Third payment attempt

• Prosper will attempt to withdraw payment from your bank account a third time.

Day 26: Third failed payment notification

• You will be charged a third failed payment fee of up to $5, depending on your state lending limits. Failed payment fees are collected by Prosper.
• You will receive an email from Prosper indicating the amount due, fees accrued, and notifying you that your loan will be turned over to an outside collection agency for collections.
• If you are a member of a group, your group leader will receive a second email from Prosper notifying them about your delinquency and the effect of your delinquency on the group's reputation.

Month 1: Late fee assessed; loan sent to collections

• You will be charged a late payment fee at 46 days past due for being late on the next month of monthly payments. Late fees are the greater of $15 or 5% of the unpaid installment amount, depending on your state lending limits. Late fees are passed on to lenders; Prosper does not profit from late fees.
• Your loan will be sent to the collection agency partner selected by the lenders with the largest participation in your loan. The collection agency will attempt to collect the amount due and any fees accrued. Learn more about Prosper's collection agency partners.
• Your delinquency will be reported to Experian, Prosper's credit reporting agency partner, and will appear in your credit history. Your credit score will be negatively impacted.

Month 2: Late fee assessed; collections continue

• You will be charged a late payment fee at 76 days past due for being late on the next month of monthly payments. Late fees are the greater of $15 or 5% of the unpaid installment amount, depending on your state lending limits. Late fees are passed on to lenders; Prosper does not profit from late fees.
• The collection agency assigned to your loan will continue attempting to collect the amount due and any fees accrued.
• Your delinquency will be reported to Experian, Prosper's credit reporting agency partner, and will appear in your credit history. Your credit score will be negatively impacted.

Month 3: Late fee assessed; collections continue

• You will be charged a late payment fee at 106 days past due for being late on the next month of monthly payments. Late fees are the greater of $15 or 5% of the unpaid installment amount, depending on your state lending limits. Late fees are passed on to lenders; Prosper does not profit from late fees.
• The collection agency assigned to your loan will continue attempting to collect the amount due and any fees accrued.
• Your delinquency will be reported to Experian, Prosper's credit reporting agency partner, and will appear in your credit history. Your credit score will be negatively impacted.

Month 4: Loan sold to debt buyer; credit history and credit score impacted

• After four months of delinquency for any single payment, your loan will be sold to a debt buyer and any proceeds will be distributed to lenders.
• Your delinquency will be reported to Experian, Prosper's credit reporting agency partner, and will appear in your credit history. Your credit score will be negatively impacted.
• Borrowers who have defaulted on a loan at Prosper will not be allowed to borrow again on the Prosper marketplace.

Detailed Payment and Delinquency Fee Schedule

What happens if I am late on a monthly payment?

Each month, your monthly loan payment is automatically withdrawn from your bank account on file. If you receive an email from Prosper that your payment failed, it means that your account has insufficient funds, or that the bank account on file at Prosper is out of date or incorrect. In either case, you will pay a failed payment fee and can fix the problem with no further penalty by making a manual payment and ensuring that your bank account has sufficient funds. Just go to "Your Account > Borrowing" and click the "Make payment" link. If your bank account information is out of date, be sure to add a new bank account first.

If you can't make a payment, Prosper will follow the delinquency schedule shown in full detail below. Please note that at all times interest continues to accrue on the principal balance of your loan, in addition to any failed payment or late payment fees assessed.

What's the best way to get current on a late loan payment?

Go to "Your Account > Borrowing" and click the "Make payment" link.

You will see the amount and date of your missed payment, along with any additional fees that have accrued. Simply enter the amount that you want to pay, and the transfer should complete in 2 to 4 business days.

Once payment is received, your account will be made current. The next month's payment will be due on the regularly scheduled date.

Five steps to group success

1. Become a Prosper expert

2. Create your group's identity

1. Use pictures: Pictures help you tell the story of your group. The more you add, the better your story will be
   
   
2. Add links to related websites: Make these links specific to your group. For example, if you are on a softball team, put links to the pizza parlor where the team goes after the game
   
   
3. Use categories: Prosper lets you put your group in up to five categories so both lenders and future members can find you when they browse groups (add link to Groups tab)
   
   
4. Tell your group's story: Who are you and why are you starting this group? Both lenders and group members will want to know
   
   
5. Membership criteria: Create a clear list of criteria for group membership and post them on your page

3. Set your group's membership criteria

4. Connect with your group members

Communicate with your members regularly to ensure a strong bond and a good reputation.

5. Grow your group

Prosper provides resources to help your group grow:

• Invite new members by clicking the "Invite new members" link on your group management page. Go to "Your Account > Group > Invite new members". Just type in email addresses and hit "send".
  
  
• Download and customize your own Prosper business cards and flyers from the group resources page. Leave a stack of business cards at your dry cleaner, grocery store, gym, and everywhere you go.
  
  
• Put a link to your Prosper group in your email signature. To find a link to your Prosper group, open your group page and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "Promote this group" link.
  
  
• Visit Prosper's discussion forums to learn marketing tips from other group leaders.

Prosper Days 2007

Join us for Prosper's First Annual Community Conference

Prosper lenders and group leaders, and those who would like to learn more about Prosper, are invited to San Francisco on February 12 & 13 for 1.5 days of learning, networking, and fun!

When: February 12 - 13, 2007
Where: The Argent Hotel, San Francisco

Click the red button that says Register now! Or visit: www.acteva.com/go/prosper. If you experience any difficulties, please email prosperdays@prosper.com.

Is there a cost for Prosper Days?
The cost of Prosper Days is $25. That price includes all education and materials as well as meals.

Five Ways to Improve Your Score

If you’ve got a low FICO score, don’t get all depressed. Snap into action; there’s plenty you can do to snag a higher score. And it’s not nearly as hard as you might think. Here are the five major factors that determine your FICO credit score:

• Pay the Minimum Due on time each month. Notice I said MINIMUM. You don’t need to pay off your balance every month to get a good credit score. Just hand over the minimum on time every month and you’ll please the credit folks. Think about it for a sec: the thing lenders, landlords, and other businesses care most about when sizing you up is whether you will be diligent about paying your bills on time. Showing that you can pay your credit card minimums every month is considered a sign that you are indeed a good credit risk. Your ability to pay the minimum on time makes up 35 percent of your FICO score.
  
  
• Reduce your debt-to-credit ratio. Another 30 percent of your score is determined by how much outstanding debt you have relative to the total available credit limit on all your cards. (Part of this calculation also includes whether you have other debts such as car loans and mortgages, and how much you have left to pay on those, compared to the original loan amount.) The lower your debt-to-credit ratio, the better. And there’s plenty you can do with your credit cards to improve your ratio. Let’s say you have two cards. One has a balance of $5,000 and a limit of $10,000, and the other has a balance of $2,000 and a limit of $8,000. That means you have total credit debt of $7,000 and a total credit limit of $18,000, which works out to a ratio of 38 percent. Now let’s say you manage to cut your balances in half, so you now have just $3,500 in debt and the same credit limit of $18,000; your ratio will fall to 19 percent.
  
  The FICO brain trust says there is no specific number that qualifies as a “good” ratio, just that lower is always better.
  
  Another tactic for lowering your ratio is to boost your credit limit. But please be very very careful before you call up a credit card issuer and ask for a bigger limit. I only want you to do this if you know you have the will power to not use that extra money. The whole idea is to lower your ratio by changing the denominator in the calculation, without touching the numerator. For example, you maintain a combined credit card balance of $7,000, but you get your limits raised so your new combined credit limit is $25,000. That means instead of a 38 percent ratio you now have a 28 percent ratio. Again, only attempt this if you have the resolve to never touch the extra credit line.
  

• Save your credit history. About 15 percent of your credit score comes down to your credit history. The more history you have, the more evidence the FICO folks have to size up your credit habits. Therefore it’s a big mistake is to cancel a credit card you no longer use. When you cancel the card you wipe out all that history. Look at it this way: if you were trying to size up two people to entrust with your money, would you lean towards the person you’ve known for ages, or someone you’ve just known for a short time? That’s the way lenders think. Besides, when you cancel a card, you also lose the credit limit it carries, a move that hurts your debt-to-credit ratio we just discussed.
  
  Now if you are concerned you won’t be able to leave an unused card unused, then just tuck it away someplace safe where you can’t easily get to it—or hit it with a pair of scissors if you have to. Without formally canceling your history you’ll have made sure there’s no way you can use it.
  
  
• Avoid offers for new cards. Even though your mailbox is full of credit card offers, and you’re asked if you want to open a card at just about every check-out counter these days, I want you to just say no. Too many cards makes lenders nervous, and your card count is responsible for about 10 percent of your FICO score. The theory is that if you open up a bunch of new card accounts you are an accident waiting to happen: you have way too many opportunities to ring up big balances you won’t be able to pay.
  
  
• Get the mix right. While you don’t need 10 cards, lenders nevertheless also like to see that you can handle multiple credit lines simultaneously. An example of what they would consider a responsible array of personal debt would be a credit card or two, one department store card, and an “installment” loan such as student loan debt or a car loan. The idea here is that you want to show ‘em you are responsible enough to juggle a few different types of debt. It‘s a bit ironic, but the one thing that makes lenders absolutely nuts is if you have no cards or loans; they then have no way of gauging whether you will be a good customer. So your mix of credit cards and loans constitutes the final 10 percent of your FICO score.

http://biz.yahoo.com/pfg/e35score/art021.html

AA - Trying to help military families

Listing Summary

Requested: $6,100.00 Lender rate: 9.00% Funded: 47% Funded: $2,841.61 funded $3,258.39 remaining Bids: 27 bids Time left: 9d 5h 41m Borrower rate: 9.00% Includes 0.00% group leader rewards Borrower APR: 9.69% Mo. payment: $193.98 3-year payment schedule Lending limits: Maryland Applicable Lending (Close) Consumer Loan License #1150 Min. and Max. Amount $6,001 - $25,000 Max. borrower cap 24.00% Failed payment fee $5 Late fees the greater of 5.00% of the unpaid installment amount, or $15 Effective on Dec-03-2006

Borrower Information

ActiveRetiree

Harvard University Alumni & Students

(36)

Homeowner

Account verified

Gaithersburg, MD

Credit information

	Credit grade:	AA
Additional credit data is only available to registered lenders. Sign in or become a lender to view this data.
	Debt/Income:	3%

I am a federal retiree with a guaranteed pension. I was bothered when I saw Prosper borrowers who are soldiers wounded in Iraq, and now they are stuck with payday loans at more than 100% interest !!

The money will be used to make Prosper loans to help military families, teachers, firefighters, police, and other public service families, trying to get back on their feet.

I have never had any credit problems, and have plenty of resources to repay the loan. This is a good opportunity to bid on a low risk loan.

Prosper security measures

• Never leave the computer you use unattended while you are signed in.
• Please do not share your screen name, email address, or password with anyone else under any circumstances. Ensure that they are kept safe, secret and not used by anyone else for any fraudulent purpose.
• Never mention your screen name or password in emails, letters or phone conversations, even to Prosper employees.
• Do not write your screen name or password down in a manner that allows them to be understood by someone else. Do not use any of them for another purpose.
• If you know or suspect that someone else has learned your screen name or password, please contact customer support immediately.
• Please change your password regularly.
• When signing in to Prosper, make sure that no one is watching you type your password or looking at your account over your shoulder.
• Check your account regularly. If you spot a transaction you don't remember making, or if funds are transferred unexpectedly, please note the exact details and contact customer support immediately.
• Check the certificate of the site. To ensure that you are using Prosper and not a look-alike scam, check the server certificate by clicking on the little yellow lock icon on the bottom right of your browser.
• Please only use the secure "Sign Out" link to safely end your Prosper session.
• Stay alert for spoof email which claims to be Prosper. Learn more about email security at Prosper.