Posted by Renaud Laplanche :: July 21, 2007 @ 12:01 pm

We are closing our 8th week on Facebook since the May 24th launch and continue to gather valuable user feedback and data. We are in the process of setting up our site to make most of the data available in an identifiable format, directly from the secure site.

In the meantime, we thought we would share a piece of data we haven’t shared yet: what you’ve done with the money! When we launched in spring time on Facebook, we were expecting a fair number of loans to cover moving expenses and other seasonal activities. There were a few of these (moves, weddings, vacations, etc.) but not as many as we expected. Below we share a breakdown of how the funds were used as reported by more than 100 borrowers:

(click graphic to enlarge)

Those numbers represent excellent news, as we have been promoting responsible borrowing on this blog and our Facebook forum for the past 7 weeks. This data shows a large majority of Lending Club loans went against refinancing existing higher-interest debt (50%), building up of assets (home improvement: 11%) and helping to develop new skills (education: 8%). Those three categories represent an aggregate two-thirds of all “consumer” loans made on Lending Club to date.

Another 5% was borrowed for business purposes (the loan was made to the individual business owner as a personal loan). It is likely that the percentage of borrowing for business purposes will increase when we expand beyond Facebook.

This is all good news so far. Keep on refinancing high-interest debt and invest in your future. Turn off your computer and have a wonderful weekend!

Renaud from Lending Club