Interest Rates which benefit both Lenders and Borrowers?

Posted by John Donovan :: August 22, 2007 @ 10:07 am

I lived in New York City for much of my life and one of our infamous mayors, named Ed Koch, used to walk around the city saying “How am I doing?” It was a great way to get feedback then, and I think it still is now. So, how are we doing? Let us know.

There are many ways to measure how we are doing. We have had previous posts on new features, new state licenses, credit policy, volume of loans, and many other topics. This post is about interest rates. We have issued more than $750,000 in loans at an average interest rate of 11%. That is a great rate at which to borrow money, as well as to lend money.

• Our average loan size continues to increase and is currently $5,586. Loan size tends to be higher at lower credit grades, possibly reflecting the need to consolidate debt. The F credit grade carries the highest average loan size of over $9,000.

• Over half of our loans carry an interest rate of 10% or below, with over 25% of all loans carrying an interest rate of 8% or less. These are great interest rates for borrowers when you consider that the average credit card (with a balance) carries an interest rate of about 15%.

• While half of the loans are issued at an interest rate of 10% or below, you can see from the distribution of rates below that our lenders have funded loans across all credit grades. Our lowest interest loan to date was issued to a New Yorker at an interest rate of 7.12% and the highest interest loan was issued to a resident of Georgia at 17.54%. We have issued loans in 22 states with Florida, New York and Massachusetts leading the pack.

So, how are we doing? We would love to hear from you.

Better rates. Together.

John Donovan