Lending Club has a new bonus that’s a fantastic follow up to the great discussion earlier this week on social lending arbitrage. It is this week’s Free Money Friday offer!
Lending Club rolled out a new website, and sent an email to current investors detailing the bonus offer.
How to Get Your $150 Bonus
- Be an existing Lending Club investor and apply for a new loan.
- List the loan by February 28, 2010 and make sure the loan is fully funded prior to midnight PT on March 15, 2010.
- Bonus will be given after first loan payment is received.
Lending Club Offer Details
I sent an email to Lending Club to get some more information on this bonus program. They confirmed the following details:
- This offer is exclusively for existing Lending Club Investors who wish to take a loan.
- There is no minimum on the loan amount.
There was a link in my email that looked like it was tied to my personal information, so you’ll want to check your email for your own link to make sure you get credit for the bonus. The email was titled “Celebrate our new look with a $150 bonus” if you are looking for it.
Even though the link was personalized, the email did contain the following note:
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If the link above is unavailable, please copy & paste this URL into your browser: https://www.lendingclub.com/borrower/applyForALoan.action
Free Money Math
After I botched the math on the last Lending Club bonus offer, I’m certain the math works out better on this one… even with the service fee! A lower loan amount and the larger bonus will definitely lend itself to some free money.
So if I take a out a $1,000 loan, I pay $22.50 for the 2.25% servicing fee, less than $10 in interest for the first month (assuming great credit which starts at 7.89%), and get a $150 bonus. I net over $100. Right, readers?
This was just the offer I was waiting for to give the social lending arbitrage a try! Now I just need to make sure to apply and get the loan listed before the end of the weekend!
If you aren’t a Lending Club investor yet, you might want to sign up for an account (and get a free $25 Sign Up Bonus) so you’ll be eligible the next time one of these offers shows up.
This looks appealing. Perhaps SO invests in a loan I apply for, that would make the deal even sweeter.
How long does it take from time of application until a loan is listed?
Answered my own question. I applied for a loan today and it will be listed tomorrow morning.
Thanks for the update. I went through the application, but didn’t do the bank verification part yet. Please let us know when your loan lists!
I had no idea about this site, I am thinking about investing…how risky is it? Is it the standard 2-3% default rate?
The default rate right now is currently 2.45%. I’m having fun investing at Lending Club… but I only use fun money that I’m willing to lose!
Well, SO and I each applied for a $1000 loan yesterday. They both listed sometime yesterday or this morning. One is 85% funded and the other one 80% funded, so likely will complete before the weekend is over. So far it has been smooth sailing. Still have to verify the bank accounts. The verification amounts have not posted in our accounts and will likely not show up until Monday or Tuesday.
Were you able to list the loan before the bank verification?
One of the writers for Mydollarplan needs to take advantage of the $150 and let the readers know which loan they are. We could all take advantage of the $25 bonus and use it to get your loan funded quickly. Since you are really just after the bonus, you would pay it back in 30 days or less, so we would all be able to help each other benefit.
Patrick, what a fantastic idea! It’s too late now, but I’ll definitely do this for the readers next time they offer a deal like this one.