K1LPI opens Ham Radio lending group on Prosper.Com

[K1LPI]

For immediate release:

K1LPI announces the creation of the Ham Radio Operators group on www.prosper.com (http://www.prosper.com). Licensed radio amateurs can borrow money to purchase amateur radio equipment or join as a lender to fund loans to fellow hams.

Buyers save because loans for ham gear will have lower interest rates then credit cards. Lenders can realize returns higher then typical checking accounts or money market funds. The risk is spread over multiple loans limiting potential loses. Amateurs have a good reputation for fair treatment of fellow amateurs which further reduces the risk in this specialized lending program.

For more details go to www.prosper.com (http://www.prosper.com) and register as a borrower or lender. Look for the group name "Ham Radio Operators". Membership in this group is limited to licensed amateurs in the US.

Disclaimer: This is an informational announcement only. This not a solicitation to lend money or to collect funds for investment. For all details on lending or borrrowing see www.prosper.com. K1LPI is a group leader and has no commercial interest or stock in www.prosper.com (http://www.prosper.com).

www.prosper.com (http://www.prosper.com)

[KG4RUL]

Damn, this sounds so bogus!

Dennis http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[K1LPI]

No, this is not bogus. www.prosper.com is a very legitimate web site. The founder of prosper.com has been successful with a national well known mortgage lending web site and has started this business as a way to bring low cost lending and borrowing to the internet. Before you make such derogatory comments you should do your homework as I did before starting the ham radio group on the site.

73 de K1LPI
Dave

[KG4RUL]

Dave sent me a personal E-Mail decrying my comment. Here is my reply to him:

Sorry, this sound like the lending schemes that were popular among Filipinos in the San Diego area about 20 years ago. I will hold to my opinion until you can PROVE me wrong.

Dennis

[K1LPI]

And here is my public reply to Dennis:

Dennis, you are too lazy to do your homework. That surprises me since you are an engineer and engineers usually try to be objective and get the facts. Prosper.Com has nothing to do with anything you might have heard of twenty years ago.

For openers, read the About Us (http://www.prosper.com/public/about/default.aspx) page on the Prosper.Com site. You will learn that one of the founders is:

Chris Larsen
CEO and Co-Founder

For over a decade Chris Larsen has focused on using the Internet to make consumer lending more efficient, fair, honest, open, and trustworthy.

Prior to Prosper, Mr. Larsen co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of E-LOAN. Under Mr. Larsen’s leadership, E-LOAN closed over $27 billion in consumer loans, and was consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most trusted consumer brands. E-LOAN earned consumers’ trust by taking radically pro-consumer actions such as being the first company to provide consumers with access to their credit scores, and playing a critical role in the passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy protection law in the nation. Mr. Larsen led E-LOAN through a successful IPO in 1999, and oversaw the company’s acquisition by Popular, Inc. in 2005.

Mr. Larsen holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from San Francisco State University, where he was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year.

Then read up on the Management Team and Investors (http://www.prosper.com/public/about/management_team.aspx). These are outstanding individuals with solid track records in business and technology. As an engineer, which you claim to be in your QRZ bio, you should have some respect for thier credentials.

Prosper.com is licensed or authorized to lend in most states. LIST OF STATES (http://www.prosper.com/public/legal/states_and_licenses.aspx) that permit lending by Prosper.

All things considered, doing business on Prosper.Com may be less risky than buying from unknown sellers right here on QRZ swapmeet. Borrowers, in fact, run no risk at all, except that lenders may not bid on the loans. Lenders have an opportunity to set the risk levels through the bidding process and the risk is spread out over many loans and lenders. The risk from fraud, which can not be entirely eliminated in any transaction, is reduced greatly by Prosper's security and identity verification. There is an arm's length relationship between lenders and borrowers.

Now, Dennis, in my opinion you have been proven wrong, and you need to go do your homework. I think you owe the forum a post to apologize for your negative uninformed remarks.

73 de K1LPI
Dave Aronovitz
Licensed since 1956

[WB2TPS]

Gee, that's what I want to do.
Loan money in small amounts, below market rates to sub-prime borrowers, with used radios as collateral.

NOT..... http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[K1LPI]

Well, WB2TPS is another who shoots before he aims. You also need to do your homework before you comment.

Lenders bid on loans at rates that are above returns available on money market funds or CDs. The best rate you can get on your cash deposits today is just over 5 percent. Lenders bid on loans that carry higher interst rates depending on the risk factor. Prosper does the credit checks.

Borowers pay rates that carry a premium but are still below hard money loans and credit cards. Loans can be for any purpose, but the ham radio operators loan group is intended to purchase ham radio equipment. The radios are not collateral. All loans are unsecured personal loans made by Prosper to the borrower. Prosper handles all payouts and collections on behalf of the lenders whose funds are pooled.

So, as I see a trend here to comment without reading up on how this works, please all of you do your homework before jumping in.

73 de K1LPI
Dave

[WB2TPS]

LPI who doth protest so much......
Let's see the numbers....

Average loan rates..
Risk profiles..
default rates..

What is the size of the loan pool?
What are the administrative costs?
Average length and size of the loan(s) ?
What is the expected payback time for the lenders?
What does the prospectus say?
Unsecured? you mean we don't even get a lien on the crappy radios?
The Nigerian scam still reels in a few suckers, I'm sure you will also......

[K1LPI]

Well, as expected, WB2TPS is also too lazy to do the homework.

The answers to your questions are all available on the prosper.com web pages. So far there are no loans in the ham radio operators group. I will be putting my money where my mouth is soon, I will be putting my money in the loan pool shortly.

The maximum length of any loan is three years. The maximum loan size is $25,000 but I doubt that any ham radio loan will be anything like that. I will set a limit depending on the inputs from group members who decide to be lenders.

Once again I ask you all do some research and homework before jumping in with uninformed comments and insinuations.

73 de K1LPI