The following is a guest post by Kyle Psaty of Perkstreet Financial, the progressive online financial services company that offers the most valuable online checking account and debit card rewards combination in the U.S.

The buzz has been exciting.  The videos have been empowering.  The last entries are rolling in and the votes will be tallied this very weekend.

The Shred Your Credit Card video contest is helping people get motivated to dump their debt in the new year, and the grand finale is almost here!  The sponsors, including Perkstreet Financial, Lending Club, and a dozen or so of the best independent personal finance blogs online, are declaring January 31st the first-ever Shred Your Credit Card Day.

So here is your last chance to submit a video to ShredYourCreditCard.com to get yourself in the running for the $1,000 grand prize! We’re also giving away hundreds more dollars to the most creative submissions.

Not competing in the contest?  Motivate friends to get out of credit card debt by sharing the site with them.

Tell them about ShredYourCreditCard.com on Monday, January 31st by tweeting, Facebooking or emailing a link to the contest.  Remind them that it’s never to late to fight back against debt!

You can also show your support for the Shred Your Credit Card community by liking it on Facebook, following it on Twitter, and voting or commenting on the site.  By visiting and sharing ShredYourCreditCard.com between now and February and you’ll be helping us spread the message that debt can be conquered and no one should be alone in the battle.

Give everyone out there who made a New Year’s resolution to dump debt and cut their credit cards motivation to try again this February by spreading the word about ShredYourCreditCard.com.

Call it a second-chance New Year.  Call it social motivation.  Call it video vindication.  Just don’t call it too late to try!

Note to contestants: All videos and votes must be submitted through ShredYourCreditCard.com by 12:00 midnight (ET) on Friday, January 28th. (That’s tomorrow) We’ll declare the $1,000 Grand Prize and two $300 Second Place winners in the contest on January 31st (Shred Your Credit Card Day), as well as a bunch of $25 runners-up.

The Shred Your Credit Card contest is well underway, and with 3 $50 weekly prizes out of the way, it's getting down to the last 2 weeks of the contest.  So what are you waiting for?  Get shredding, blending, slicing, or hammering that pesky credit card.  Not in a destroying mood? Just tell us your debt story and what your plans are for getting credit card debt under control.

Need inspiration? Check out these videos first or read Denver's 9News take on the innovative and fun challenge we are posing to you.

@RobGarciaSJ

18 competitors, 4 winners, $8,000 in prizes, 100,000+ views

We have just announced on Facebook® the names of the 4 winners in the first Lending Club Video Contest. The Contest took place simultaneously on Facebook® and YouTube® from July 18th through August 10th and the Lending Club videos have been watched a combined 100,000 times on YouTube® in this past 5 weeks.

Our original plan was to give away a single $5,000-prize to the most-watched video. However, after reaching out to the top competitors, we have all agreed to split the main prize, create additional prizes and incorporate other criteria than just YouTube® views including overall quality of original content, clarity of the message, and entertainment value of the video.

And the winners are…(drum roll):

$3,000 Best Video Award - Chris Barrett

Chris Barrett: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G43bLni8Or4 (17,825 views). Chris Barrett is a professional filmmaker and co-founder of Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment, LLC along with actor Efren Ramirez. Chris is currently directing the documentary "After School" studying the phenomenon of illicit teacher-student relationships. He can also be seen in the award winning documentaries "The Corporation" and "Maxed Out," both currently on DVD. Read Chris’ interview by Tom Tolman.

$3,000 YouTube® Viewers Award - Steve Dinelli

Steve Dinelli: http://youtube.com/watch?v=S6RtyX47r_M (19,011 views). Eighteen-year-old Steve Dinelli’s « stop motion » video shows Steve’s talent as well as his ability to convey the right messages about Lending Club. Steve’s video was acclaimed by YouTube’s viewers and has passed the 20,000-view mark. Read Steve’s interview by Tom Tolman.

$1,500 Storyboard Award - Jonthan Reed

Jonathan Reed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSn9nlZC8kM (6,480 views). Jonathan Reed entered the contest in its last week, with an astonishing video that blends Lending Club’s branding and Facebook® presence with a well thought-through and very convincing storyboard. Congratulations Jonathan!

$500 Jury Prize - Share Ross

Share Ross: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOyl4Vh-ZhE (1,018 views). Share feels p2p lending is a wonderful form of anarchy and her video is compelling in its direct exchange of information. Share is the former bassist for the platinum-selling EMI recording artists Vixen and guitarist and singer for Bubble. Read Share’s interview by Tom Tolman.

We are delighted at the outcome of this first contest, have gathered great videos that we will be posting on our Web site to explain the benefits of person-to-person lending, and have learned a lot more about the YouTube ecosystem and the best ways to reach out to the filmmaker community.

By watching videos made by people not previously familiar with p2p lending, we also understood better how our company is being perceived, and how we can best benefit from, or when inaccurate, positively influence, that perception.

A big “thank you” to all 18 participants; we certainly hope to see you around soon for our next video contest!

We are about half-way through the first person-to-person lending YouTube Video Contest announced by Centernetwork, Prosperlendingreview and on this blog on July 19. The contest will be running for another 8 days until August 10.

The goal of this contest is to invite Lending Club users (and just about everyone) to think of entertaining or educational ways to convey the benefits of p2p lending and to help spread the word about those benefits. With more than 12,000 views, the contest has already reached its objective!

For a reason that we cannot fully explain, we are getting a lot of animal-related videos, including cats, raccoons, lions, alligators and buffalos! As an example, you can see lions (banks) and alligators (credit card companies) attacking a buffalo (borrower) who gets rescued by other buffalos (lending club members) in this video posted yesterday by the latest entrant.

The winning contender so far is Steve Dinelli, with more than 6,000 views on YouTube with this excellent Lending Club Contest video.

Videos can get several thousand views in just a few hours on YouTube, so there is still time to enter the contest -- all bets are off until the very last day. Remember, there is a $5,000 cash prize going to the entrant with the most views on YouTube. You can enter by posting your video in this Facebook group.

More animals, anyone?

As recently reported by CenterNetworks and Prosperlending (we can’t seem to keep up with our own news), we just launched a contest on Facebook for the best video about peer-to-peer lending.

Anyone with a Facebook account can participate by making a short video and posting it in this Facebook group and on YouTube. The video that receives the most views on YouTube wins, and the winner earns $5,000 for their innovative creation. The contest will end August 10. See complete contest rules here.

We are launching this contest to invite everybody to think about peer-to-peer lending in a fun and creative way, help explain the benefits, and just spread the word. We heard today about a few entries in the making that sound just hilarious and can’t wait to see them in action! Email with any question about this contest at contests@lendingclub.com.

This is just another way to get out of debt: win $5,000 and pay off your credit card balance!