Prosper Review 2024

Prosper Financing Options

Prosper personal loans can either be taken by a single person or by two borrowers at the same time. These are also called joint loans and are becoming more and more common from various lending institutions. No matter what option you choose, you can expect a wide range of short-term loan amounts and other benefits for customers.

Unlike many other platforms, this peer-to-peer lender has a set of requirements publicly available, which also means that not absolutely everyone can get a loan here.

You must:

• Be 18 or older
• Be a US citizen or permanent resident
• Have a credit score of at least 600
• Have minimum two years of credit history
• Have No bankruptcies within the past year
• Not have a debt to income ratio exceeding 50%

Debt Consolidation

There’s a wide variety of reasons for people to take out a personal loan, but the most common is debt reorganization.

Consolidation isn’t really about erasing your previous debt, rather it’s a way to ease previous payments. For example, let’s say you had a loan with bad repayment terms, so you take a loan that’s much easier to pay off to cover the previous one.

Home Improvement

On the other hand, you might need a loan for a more cheerful reason. Maybe you want to refurbish your house. Luckily, some of the personal loan lenders here specialize in home improvement loans. Well, as long as you don’t need more than $50,000 – the hard limit for all Prosper loans.

Auto Loans

Buying a brand new car isn’t as easy as you might think. Not in this economy, at least. That’s why car financing is such a hot commodity for lending platforms. The same set of rules apply for an auto loan as the company’s other loan types, but as soon as Prosper approves your application, you’re free to use the money for car repairs, or even to buy a car, new or used.

Prosper Application Process

Prosper’s signup process is as streamlined as possible. All you have to do is fill out a short application form. You can do so directly online or via phone or email. But it’s definitely fastest to go directly through the website.

Applying for a loan at Prosper involves hitting the big green “Check Your Rate” button on the homepage, choosing the amount and the reason for the loan, and then proceeding to fill out the form. Once you’re done, the site will process your information and try to pair you with the best lenders for your circumstances.

Mind you, the site doesn’t actually run your credit at this point. It just uses the information you’ve provided, like estimated annual income, to filter through its network of lenders. Whether you get approved or not will depend on the lending partner you choose from the list.

The site also gives you a rating. The company reviews all of your potential risk factors and then gives you a score – AA, A, B, C, D, E, or HR. The higher the grade, the better your chances of getting approved. After getting the loan quote, your data remains in the system for further offers.

When you find the offer that best suits your needs and pass the lenders credit check, you can expect the money to hit your bank account in a few days.

What Do I Need to Apply?

Before Prosper examines your finances, it will first need to gather some data. Fortunately, the site isn’t too nosey, and its application requires just some basic information.

• Loan amount and purpose
• Whether it’s a single person or joint loan
• Name
• Date of birth
• Email
• Address
• Annual income (including any additional income)
• Monthly rent or mortgage payment (if any)
• Phone number
• Social Security number

Applying for online loans shouldn’t require too much extra information. That’s why Prosper won’t make you uncomfortable and ask you to share too much. In fact, you’ll feel safe knowing that the site uses hard encryption on all the data that passess through its servers.

Not only is it secure, but it won’t hurt your credit either. Once you find an ideal loan offer, confirm your wish to proceed with it and initiate the lending process, the platform will do a credit check. This will confirm your eligibility for that particular loan.

Seasoned borrowers might not find it particularly different from other marketplaces, but it’s still commendable when every other loan marketplace will hurt your credit score the moment you send in your application.

Prosper Financing Features

“Hello financial well-being,” reads the big tagline on Prosper’s homepage. A friendly welcome to the world of lending is what many first-time borrowers are looking for, not a long lecture full of industry terminology. Scrolling down a bit, you can learn more about how the site works, the three steps to getting a loan, and even get a real-time map of loans as they’re getting approved for other customers.

The site, unfortunately, doesn’t feature a loan calculator, but it does let you download an app for your phone that will alert you when you get approved for a loan. It also helps investors find loans to support, either in full or by providing partial funding. This is what sets this site apart from the rest. Anyone can become an investor at Prosper, creating another source of income in the long run.

On the other hand, this means you might not be getting your loan funded in its entirety right away, in turn making this platform less than ideal for people looking for fast funding. We’ve seen that funding can take anywhere between 3 and 14 days. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of luck.

Lending here works like other platforms in its field. Apply once and then wait. You don’t need to reapply for the same loan if you don’t get offers immediately. On the flip side, your loans might not be funded by a single entity due to how the site gathers its funds.

It’s best to keep tabs on your loan status through the app. At least the lenders won’t be giving you phone calls and offering you other deals while you wait for the initial loan approval.

Another important factor to keep in mind is the possibility of extra fees, even though Prosper’s services come at no charge. The origination fees are unavoidable when it comes to online personal loans, but you can also expect additional penalty fees if you’re late with your repayments or don’t have enough money in your account when payments are due. The fee is either $15 or an extra 5%, whichever is higher.

Loan Amount and APR Details

Speaking strictly of loan amounts and rates, loans here don’t fall out of the standard offer one might find at many other marketplaces. Here’s a quick look at loan ranges:

• Loan amount: $2,000 to $50,000
• APR: 8.98% to 35.99%
• Origination fee: Varies from lender to lender
• Other fees: $15 or 5% late payment fee
• Loan term: Three or five years
• Repayment options: Monthly

Once your application is reviewed, you’ll get more specific details about what kind of loan you’re eligible for. That is why loans have such a wide range. Unfortunately with Prosper, you can’t really get much flexibility with the timeline of your loan. You either get a three-year or a five-year repayment period.

One very unusual thing is that you can’t really get much of a flexibility with your loan, it’s either set to a three-year or a five-year repayment period. Nothing in between. As usual, the better your financial situation, the better the terms will be, especially when it comes to APR.

Prosper Repayment Terms

Some factors of Prosper’s loans cannot be customized. However, the platform’s flexibility is quite good when it comes to the timeline for loan payments. The exact date of each of your repayments can be negotiated and moved up or down depending on your finances.

This, in itself, is a rarity in the lending business, and one of the reasons personal loans at Prosper are so popular. We’ve all experienced unexpected financial troubles at some point in our lives, so it’s nice to know you can delay your repayments by a day or two if need be.

There are no discounts for early payments but keep in mind that you’ll be penalized for any late payments on your loan.

The Bottom Line

There are many places to get a loan today. There are more peer-to-peer lenders out there than ever before. To stand out from the crowd, a platform should evolve its original purpose. Prosper might have started as a simple lending marketplace, but today it’s a fully fledged platform that’s great for investing as well.

Whether you’re a lender or a borrower, there’s no doubt that you should sign up for Prosper’s services.