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[nonattender]

nonattender,
A) I looked for that 3 month minimum borrower retention of the loan & could not find it.  All of the locations in Lending Club's site I found state that loans can be paid back at any time.  So either, I have not found it or, more likely it has changed or I am mistaken.
D) When they initially offered the 5% deal, they had a bit about 'submitting your portfolio'.  I saw this as a dangerous rebatish situation.  Current details no longer mention this 'submit your portfolio' game.  They may have eliminated this foolishness from the deal.  I can't find any reference to it anymore.

A new item that may be of concern is this:

4. The Team at Lending Club is very excited about this offer, and wants as many lenders as possible to participate. Lending Club reserves the right to withhold bonus payments in the case of fraudulent activity or any other violation of the Terms of Use, found here: http://www.lendingclub.com/info/terms-of-use.action

http://blog.lendingclub.com/thank-you

If Lending Club considers this kind of arbitrage fraudulent, you might lose out.  Then again, if they just want to pump their numbers, they might let it ride.  Who knows.  Should we call and ask them?

I appreciate you doing the research and posting corrections to your objections.

I got an email from a contact at LC last night, about an hour after posting that article, thanking me for the coverage and stating that, while they were fully aware of this, and somewhat amused by my article, they did still hope people would keep the bonus money in the system and lend it out.  No withdrawal of the offer, or statement that it would change.  Not that I expected such.

-t

[RateLadder_com]

@NA That is ammusing...

[onthefence]

nonattender,
Props for getting a response & clarification from Lending Club.

I guess that leaves the only concern of screwing up relationships with other people.  If someone does decide to do this I strongly advise ironing out the details and make sure each party clearly understands the costs and the splits and also accounts for the tax implications of the 5% bonus.  A good formal agreement up front can save a lifetime of regret.

One other item I did not see spelled out in the Lending Club offer is how the allocation is dished out in case of more claims being made.  More specifically, is it "1st come, 1st server"?  Or might they potentially allocate a weighted percentage?

[nonattender]

Rob from LendingClub dropped by and left a comment on my Lending Club Bonus post:

In part, it read:

"At Lending Club, we believe in anonymity, and making lending decisions on the credit history (hard numbers) + user story + affinities without necessarily knowing the person’s name, address, pictures, etc. But if your friend of family member tells you their Lending Club screen name, you can easily locate his/her loan request by typing that screen name in the keyword search box.

So be our guest, and get your friends and family onto our platform. We will definitely honor the 5% bonus. That’s the whole point of P2P Lending: Better rates. Together."

-t