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[zcommodore]

No, I'm not talking about the New Agency Test loans, I'm talking about another set I came across today.

I was looking on ericscc.com at loans marked as "repurchased" that originated during the month of May 2006.  I picked this month somewhat at random and found there were a total of 14 loans with that designation out of a total of 461 loans that originated that month.

Here is the breakdown of loans that I found based on the "status" updates listed on the loan page on ericscc.com:

2 typical repurchase loans
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/8190
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/11956

2 New Agency Test loans
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/10840
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/12424

10 defaulted then later repurchased
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/8971
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/9272
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/11752
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/13266
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/13871
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/14428
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/14312
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/12808
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/15369
http://www.ericscc.com/listings/16487

Some things that I noticed about this last set:
- They all defaulted in late Dec. 2006.
- They were all repurchased in Feb. 2007

I have a couple of questions if anyone here happens to have been on any of those.
- If the loan was defaulted in December, did you get anything out of the loan?
- If the loan was repurchased, did you get the balance of your principal back?
- How will this be reported on your tax forms if you did get your principal back and if you reported it as a loss in last year's taxes?

I am totally confused by this and am wondering if ericscc.com may have something wrong.  I didn't look at the lender's list on any of the loans to see if anyone here might be on one of those who could shed a bit more light on it.  I did notice that the "repurchase" date coincided very closely with last year's Prosper Days event (PD07).  The whole thing just makes me very curious.  Please respond if you can answer one or more of my questions.

[traveler505]

It appears that these loans were indeed repurchased in December 2006, but initially categorized incorrectly as defaulted. 

http://www.prosperreport.com/prosper/forums/archive/threads/1/5/7/15794.0.HTM

I wonder if this was the point at which the FTC allegedly told Prosper that it couldn't refuse to accept payments other than ACH transfers and bank drafts:

Workinmomi was one of the repurchased loans:

From: workinmomi
Received: Nov-28-2006 6:18 AM PT
To: Penelope
Subject: Re: Message from Prosper member Penelope: Morning
I have attempted on several occasions to work with Prosper on bringing my account current; however, they flat REFUSE to accept any kind of payment insisting on bank transfers ONLY. Due to considerable fraudulent activity on two of my bank accounts that was discovered shortly after my first payment was due, I was forced to close out all of my accounts and am now unable to open a new bank account until my records are cleraed up.

When Prosper is willing to work with me on my current situation I will GLADLY bring my account current. In fact, I have the cash already set aside & each month I add the $75 payment that would normally be going to Prosper so that IF they decide to work with me, the funds will be there.I have done all that I can short of sending the funds directly to the lenders bypassing Prosper.
wm

According to her less-than-reliable GL, Prosper confirmed that it was refusing to accept her payments.

Hello all, Well "MTNCHICK"s e-mail today looking for an update on this one prompted me to call Prosper yet again to get some kind of idea what is going on with this one.
However, the update was not favorable by any means, they stated that they did confirm a issue with the MEMBERS bank which would not allow them to deduct loan payments. They also stated that this member has offered other forms of payment but they are not set up to take them and therefore they have not been able to collect to date..
The final outcome is that has been over 30 days without being able to collect so Prosper has turned it over to collection and therefore is no longer trying to collect at this point. I am sorry for the length of time this has taken but I had some trouble getting a response myself after the forum post this member made.

http://www.prosperreport.com/prosper/forums/archive/threads/5/4/5437.0.HTM

[ira01]

As of today, there are a total of 122 repurchased loans according to Lendingstats.  IIRC, 66 of those are the NAT loans, 11 are the Jessica Crawford loans, and now it appears that at least 10 may be due to Prosper's illegal refusal to accept payments other than ACH and its bank drafts.  That leaves only 35 loans (at most) repurchased by Prosper due to other identity theft under its "100% id-theft" guarantee (and one of those was the infamous Leporello id-theft loan, which Prosper finally repurchased after it was about 10 months late only after Lep publicized that Prosper hadn't even spoken with the NYPD detective handling the victim's id-theft case after Lep gave all the info to Prosper on a silver platter).  That is a shockingly low number of repurchases, given the significant amount of fraud we know takes place.  Yet another indication that Prosper invests little effort in finding id-theft loans and repurchasing them under its "guarantee." 

[traveler505]

As of today, there are a total of 122 repurchased loans according to Lendingstats.  IIRC, 66 of those are the NAT loans, 11 are the Jessica Crawford loans, and now it appears that at least 10 may be due to Prosper's illegal refusal to accept payments other than ACH and its bank drafts.  That leaves only 35 loans (at most) repurchased by Prosper due to other identity theft under its "100% id-theft" guarantee (and one of those was the infamous Leporello id-theft loan, which Prosper finally repurchased after it was about 10 months late only after Lep publicized that Prosper hadn't even spoken with the NYPD detective handling the victim's id-theft case after Lep gave all the info to Prosper on a silver platter).  That is a shockingly low number of repurchases, given the significant amount of fraud we know takes place.  Yet another indication that Prosper invests little effort in finding id-theft loans and repurchasing them under its "guarantee." 

Just to be clear:  As far as I know, the workinmomi loan is the only one from this batch where payment methods became an issue, and I can't rule out the possibility of identity theft in her case.  (Her level of communication really isn't consistent with garden-variety identity theft, IMO, but could be consistent with intra-family identity theft, where there was an intent to pay when the loan was taken out.) 

Another of the loans from that batch was widely suspected to be fraudulent, whether of the ID theft or another variety, and the borrower was uncommunicative with his group leader:

#12808 - St. James College Loan
July 15th - Made initial contact with Borrower via Email
July 24th - Second attempt to contact Borrower via Email
July 28th - Made Phone Call and spoke w/ assistant.
July 30th - Mailed letter to verify email address/phone.
Aug. 4th - Made call, left voicemail.
Aug. 7th - Left message with assistant.
Aug. 9th - Sent Email to borrower.
Aug. 28th - Still no response from borrower. Sept. 14th - Left message on personal line.
Sept. 28th - Still no response
Oct. 3rd - Called, No voicemail. Emailed.

http://www.utopialoans.com/page/page/3713901.htm

[mothandrust]

Mtnchick reported getting back her principal (no interest) on this loan:

http://www.ericscc.com/listings/12808

in this thread on the old forums on 2/6/07:

http://www.prosperreport.com/prosper/forums/archive/threads/1/8/4/18429.1.htm

These 10 all have in common that the loan went bad right from the start, with the loan making no payments right from the start, or at most 1.

If you think Prosper is doing a crummy job on its Guarantee, then go find out how many May 2006 loans did not make their first payment but Defaulted and were not Repurchased.

If Prosper bought back 10 out of 10, that's pretty good.  If they only repurchased 10 out of 20, then the Guarantee has no teeth.  If it's 10/10 in May 2006, has that ratio stayed the same or dipped as time goes on?

I only looked at the first week in May 2006, but Prosper seems to have bought back all the bad-from-the-start loans from that week.

Even if Prosper has been doing a spectacular job on the Guarantee, how long can it continue?  What is their cash position?  How much is in the Prosper budget for Repurchases under the Guarantee, and what the the actual expenditures for 2007 and projected for 2008?  Anyone seen a balance sheet?  

[Mtnchick]

Mtnchick reported getting back her principal (no interest) on this loan:

http://www.ericscc.com/listings/12808

in this thread on the old forums on 2/6/07:

http://www.prosperreport.com/prosper/forums/archive/threads/1/8/4/18429.1.htm

These 10 all have in common that the loan went bad right from the start, with the loan making no payments right from the start, or at most 1.

If you think Prosper is doing a crummy job on its Guarantee, then go find out how many May 2006 loans did not make their first payment but Defaulted and were not Repurchased.

If Prosper bought back 10 out of 10, that's pretty good.  If they only repurchased 10 out of 20, then the Guarantee has no teeth.  If it's 10/10 in May 2006, has that ratio stayed the same or dipped as time goes on?

I only looked at the first week in May 2006, but Prosper seems to have bought back all the bad-from-the-start loans from that week.

Even if Prosper has been doing a spectacular job on the Guarantee, how long can it continue?  What is their cash position?  How much is in the Prosper budget for Repurchases under the Guarantee, and what the the actual expenditures for 2007 and projected for 2008?  Anyone seen a balance sheet? 

Oddly enough that loan is under "Loan Defaulted" in my history:

(Loan #1033) has been marked as defaulted. Proceeds from sale and forfeited group rewards in the amount of $50.00 have been deposited in your account.

This is the only loan I've had repurchased and they even made a payment:

http://www.prosper.com/lend/listing.aspx?listingID=25343