Lending Hub Online Loan Platform Goes Live!
We have been developing, coding and creating a peer to peer or social lending platform for personal loans between family and friends and today we finally go live!
Go to lendinghub.com.au to browse the site, or lendinghub.com.au/Info/AboutUs.php to learn a little bit more about Lending Hub in Australia.
Start a Loan Listing
Looking to borrow money from a friend or family member? Start at lendinghub.com.au/Borrowing/HowToBorrow.php to see how to create an online loan listing and start borrowing from your network of friends and family.
Want to Help a Friend with a Small Loan
Looking to help a friend or relative with a small personal loan that could make a real difference to their lives? The go to lendinghub.com.au/Lending/HowToLend.php to become a registered lender on Lending Hub and to bid on your friend’s loan. Remember that the borrower needs to create a loan listing on the Lending Hub loan market so why not send them a quick email first and get them online and listed!
Just Curious About P2P Lending?
P2P Lending is a truly novel and innovative concept that will revolutionise the way we think about money and lending. In the US, UK and Europe P2P lenders are taking off and proving to be extremely popular. This is a world wide phenomenon were consumers want an alternative to the traditional and old fashioned banks…and now its available in Australia.
See our information site for more help - Lending Hub Help Centre.
Alternatively browse the Lending Hub Blog which is full of articles and commentary on the Peer to Peer loan industry.
Who Can Start a P2P Loan?
Anyone with an Australian bank account and who is over 18 years of age.
From the Lending Hub Team…best of luck with your loans and we hope you enjoy an alternative to the banks!
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Today the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) increased its home loan variable interest rate by 0.1% to 5.74% even though the official cash interest rates have been falling and we are in the middle of an economic downturn and global financial crisis (also popularly known as the GFC).
It’s interesting to note that the ‘big’ banks continue to be true to form and alienate their customers, the borrowers by hiking up interest rates (and fees) when times are tough.
These sort of price hikes come about due to a lack of a real alternative in Australia to the traditional big banks…many of the smaller banks and non-bank lenders have been bought out or have effectively stopped lending.
This is a good example of why we have launched the Lending Hub Marketplace for Loans…we seek to provide ordinary individuals the way to sidestep the big institutions and lend and borrow directly person to person. Borrowers and consumers will hopefully benefit from the introduction of an alternative of to the expensive and old fashioned lenders.
Lending Hub …where ordinary people set the interest rate!
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US Lenders on Prosper can now Trade Loans
Prosper.com the US peer to peer lender has recently announced the launch of a new loan exchange where personal loans can be traded on a secondary market. Interesting concept as the loans are originated by Prosper approved financial institutions and then traded on Prosper where lenders can bid the interest rates on these loans.
This open market is a further example of the effectiveness that digital platforms can have in setting fairer and more transparent prices and allow for more effective distribution of risk amongst a wider set of lenders. We’ll be watching and seeing how this new product and exchange takes off in the US and maybe consider this for Australian borrowers and lenders in due course.
In Australia it is still early days for the P2P loan market which Lending Hub is building and developing but in the US there’s a great deal of innovation being driven by the size of the market and the tightening of credit by the financial institutions following the sub-prime credit crunch.
Further Info on Prosper.com
For further details see Prosper’s info page Prosper Open Market.
Prosper.com reports on its site at http://www.prosper.com/welcome/marketplace.aspx to have originated US$178 million in personal peer to peer loans at about US$6,100 average loan size.
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Circle Lending…Loans in the Family
Australians like many other cultures have often turned to their closest resource when needing to borrow money without the involvement of a bank or institutional lender. A Circle lending community and market though is a fairly new concept in Australia in terms of a structured market for friend to friend and family to family loans. If you are looking to setup a loan in the family here are a few things to consider and organise first.
Formalizing Family Loans
Borrowing or lending to a family member can sometimes be a little difficult to setup as it can be process influenced by the emotions of close family members. After all how easy is it to ask a parent or a sibling for money!
Instead of just asking for a loan from your relatives and having to ask the difficult question, Lending Hubworks by ‘formalising a family loan’ model. As a borrower you create a loan listing on Lending Hub and go through a quick application. At the end of the application you have effectievly created a formal request for a loan with a set repayment schedule, dfined interest rate and amount and you have stated the purpose and use for the personal loan.
Generating Interest in your Loan
The next step is to promote your loan listing to you family members (or close friends if you want to as well) by emailing them details of your loan listing on Lending Hub. Your family members can then view your commitment to the loan by viewing a loan listing similar to the ones at Lending Hub Sample Loan Listings.
Making it Easy for Your Family to Lend to You
Make it easy for your family to make the decision to lend to you by following a few simple points:
- State what you want to use the personal loan for and include some detail e.g. Loan for an Education Course
- Keep the amount you are asking for as small as possible by doing a quick budget of what you actually need
- Provide a little info about yourself…you’ll be surprised how often even people who know you forgot the specifics of your background!
- Set a reasonable limit on the interest rate, even if are prepared to pay a rate similar to a bank it will help show you are serious
- Be active in promoting your loan and need for a loan…persistance pays off
So instead of making vague promises and using the back of a napkin to borrow money from your parents or other family members, take an active step in formalising your loan.
Best of luck.
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There’s been a great deal of pessimism about the GFC (Global Financial Crisis), the economy, job prospects, the share markets in Australia (and the World) lately. Consumers are finding that the banks have started to tighten access to consumer loans and restrict lending all but their prime clients. In a country with four large banks Government decisions have helped these banks to snap up smaller rivals and effectively have lessened competition at a time when consumer need more competition rather than less.
Now, not only does it take longer to get a home loan or personal loan from one of the major banks but the LVRs (loan to value ratios) they offer are lower and potential borrowers with any blemish on their credit history are effectively being locked out of the loan market, even if it something small such as not paying a phone bill.
We at Lending Hub have been developing our person to person lending platform to allow Australian consumers who are either finding it hard to get a loan from the banks or just want a better deal. Lending Hub will let consumers and borrowers tap into the power of their network of friends and family and borrow small personal loans from people thye know.
Similar to other circle lending networks individuals looking to fund personal expenses can apply for a loan listing on Lending Hub and then market their loan to their friends and family.
Friends and family (and even work mates) are more likely to lend to someone they know and trust and the reward is that borrowers are more likely to repay on time.
The GFC may have caused a credit squeeze in the short term in Australia but soon to be going live Lending Hub will offer borrowers another avenue for their loan needs.
See us live in April 2009!
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We have launched the new Lending Hub site design and theme in September 2008.You can browse around the site and join Lending Hub using a valid email address. We’ve also setup for borrowers the Online Loan Calculator that estimates the monthly repayments on a Lending Hub peer to peer loan.
You can also see information and how to pages at the Lending Hub Peer to Peer Information Centre.
We will soon launch the fully functional borrower and lender application forms that will allow users to register with us and to start borrowing and lending.
Stay tuned and look out for Australia’s newest banking experience!
The Lending Hub Team
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Very soon (in late July) we’ll be starting to post some new help and ‘how to’ pages. Items we’ll cover include:
- How peer to peer lending works
- What you’ll need to provide during a borrowing application
- What you’ll need to provide if you want to start lending
- Information on Lending Hub’s credit grades (we’ll be processing borrower details to determine a credit grade for each borrower)
- How to create the best possible loan listing (for borrowers)
Check http://lendinghub.com.au/Info/Personal_Loans.php early next week for an update.
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