The borrower isn't online often, so it took a while to get ahold of additional info from her...
Thanks for your efforts on this.
(This loan is in the 4+ month late category, and there's no "In collections" indication on it.)
She said she talked to DF about a year ago trying to work out a new payment plan - like stretch out the loan or lower the interest rate. She said she did this because that was the advice of debt counselors. But she said DF wasn't nice and wouldn't agree to any new plan.
As to the "not nice" part, that is so subjective it is hard to say whether that should carry any weight. Although I would hope (and I assume) that he didn't cuss her out and hang up on her, she might interpret anything other than "sure no problem" as being "not nice." As to the "wouldn't agree" part, there is no legal way for Prosper to stretch out the loan or (especially) lower the interest rate (not that Prosper usually feels itself bound by its legal agreements).
She said her account was turned over to a collection agency who called every day which was "quite harassing", and then they messed up her credit.
GOOD! I'm glad to hear it. After the reports we've heard from other borrowers of few if any contacts, it is nice to hear that in at least some cases, the CA is on the job.
She then got ahold of Tim Bright who said he'd check with DF. He came back and said that DF said if she paid "$361 before 120 days, that would keep me away from the Collection Agency". (Her usual monthly payment is $387.) She got confirmation of this agreement in a short PM from Tim Bright (which she forwarded to me without me asking for it). She said she paid on the 120th day.
Would that have made her less than 30 days late? If not, I don't see how Prosper has any legal right to keep the loan from collections, as specified in the LRA.
So a while back, but after some time had passed, the borrower tried to contact Tim Bright again to see if there's any update on the loan-stretching thing - because she's still interested in doing this. But he's been unresponsive for a good month or more. She made it a point to explain to me that she's been most earnest in trying to work out something with Prosper.
That's more like the Prosper we all know -- nothing like ignoring emails and VM's from late borrowers who want to pay.

IMHO: as a lender, I don't like the idea of reworking the loans. But I think this is more and more a reality in the lending marketplace in this time of sub-prime meltdowns. So begrudgingly, I'd like to see Prosper find a way to do rework loans too - altho' I wouldn't dare pretend to comprehend the magnitude of the changes that would need to be made.
The main problem with this idea, it seems to me, is that it requires that someone have the authority to make decisions about particular modifications, and Prosper has proven again and again that it has neither the competence nor the ethics to be that decisionmaker. Does anyone here (other than NA and MHS) really trust Prosper to competently make those decisions in lenders' best interest (as opposed to Prosper's best interest)?