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[Mark12547]

This showed up in my Google Alerts this morning:

5 Messy Money Mistakes and Quick Fixes

MISTAKE: Loaning Dough to Your Deadbeat Friends

Out of the 800 people surveyed in the new book Isn’t It Their Turn to Pick Up the Check? authors Jeanne Fleming and Leonard Schwarz discovered more than 40% of lenders never got repaid in full from friends and family. Nearly one in three got totally stiffed. ...

THE FIX: Sic Your Friend on Someone Else

The internet is packed with people willing to finance your deadbeat roommate’s latest get-rich scheme - even if his credit stinks.  Help your friend set up an account on social lending sites like prosper.com and lendingclub.com, which link individual microlenders with eager borrowers, at interest rates much lower than traditional banks. ...

(Emphasis added)

So, basically, that article is suggesting that people send their deadbeat friends to Prosper.com. 

The article also covers store credit cards, bar tabs, paying for awful service and pre-spending.

[112233]

hmm .. it certainly creates a new perspective on the value of endorsements.

"this guy is my friend. he is a good person. bid on him" really means "this guy is my friend. I know him well. he is such a deadbeat that I wont even loan him the entire amount. I hope you suckers do" ?

[bookwyrm]

It doesn't really matter where it goes, just so long as you don't have to deal with them anymore.  That's what a quick fix is.  Like filing the overflow in your inbox in the trash can.

[Shenandoah]

While it is a bad idea for lenders if people are sending deadbeat friends here, I also think it's true that people are more likely to stiff their friends ("he won't care"), especially when there's no official setup to the loan (most agreements between friends don't have a due date, credit reporting, bank account transfers, etc).

So just because someone may not repay a friend does not, in itself, mean they will necessarily be a bad Prosper borrower.

[xraider]

That makes my stomach hurt.  This post should be in the lobby- it shows a painfully true perception of sucker to stranger lending.

[Mtnchick]

While it is a bad idea for lenders if people are sending deadbeat friends here, I also think it's true that people are more likely to stiff their friends ("he won't care"), especially when there's no official setup to the loan (most agreements between friends don't have a due date, credit reporting, bank account transfers, etc).

So just because someone may not repay a friend does not, in itself, mean they will necessarily be a bad Prosper borrower.

I completely disagree. I would pay family and friends back long before I'd pay back some strangers on the internet. If they aren't paying family and friends, they are deadbeats. Period. P-----r will welcome them with open arms. And their family/friends can toss in an obligatory $50 on $25K loan to make it look like they really, really do trust them.......

SO glad I'm not lending here any more..........

[NewHorizon]

Why does CreditBoards come to mind...   

[Shenandoah]

I completely disagree. I would pay family and friends back long before I'd pay back some strangers on the internet.

You can't use what you would do as a basis for what a typical Prosper borrower would do.  It's a completely different mindset.

[Caladia]

This showed up in my Google Alerts this morning:

5 Messy Money Mistakes and Quick Fixes

MISTAKE: Loaning Dough to Your Deadbeat Friends

Out of the 800 people surveyed in the new book Isn’t It Their Turn to Pick Up the Check? authors Jeanne Fleming and Leonard Schwarz discovered more than 40% of lenders never got repaid in full from friends and family. Nearly one in three got totally stiffed. ...

THE FIX: Sic Your Friend on Someone Else

The internet is packed with people willing to finance your deadbeat roommate’s latest get-rich scheme - even if his credit stinks.  Help your friend set up an account on social lending sites like prosper.com and lendingclub.com, which link individual microlenders with eager borrowers, at interest rates much lower than traditional banks. ...

(Emphasis added)

So, basically, that article is suggesting that people send their deadbeat friends to Prosper.com. 

The article also covers store credit cards, bar tabs, paying for awful service and pre-spending.

Oh, too funny.  I think it's GREAT that this article is out there, as long as potential lenders see it.  It's one of the few that isn't a puff piece-- puts Prosper in a more negative light, so if a naive newbie saw it, maybe they'd think, "hey, wait a minute..."