money and how to bypass the evils of banks..........
I'm amazingly putting something useful and non rant-y on my journal. It's about a rather groovy money initiative that neatly bypasses the banks and allows most people to get a loan with a decent interest rate or invest their money for the same without being at the whim of the market or banks. I'll put the rest of this under a cut to save you flist
Anyhoo, there is this company called zopa, (active in the UK, the US and Japan only) who basically had the idea of social lending. That is a lot of people lend out a small amount of money each. Other people borrow the money and pay interest on it (just like a normal unsecured loan) as they pay it back. The lenders get back a small increase on their original amount and the borrowers get a decent interest rate and the ability to pay back early or extra with no penalties. All in all its a fairly cool idea and seems to be working well.
They have had write ups about them in various UK newspapers, and probably some in the US and Japan as well. There are links from their website to these articles. http://uk.zopa.com/member/picturskew
I managed to get a loan with them so I was able to by a new car last year, which enable me to get home to see my mum every weekend whilst she was ill.
It won't be for everyone obviously, you'll probably need some credit history, but they have their own credit scoring system which seems to work quite well.
Just thought it might be useful knowledge.
Plus if you click the link above I'll get £50 off my loan if you also get a loan. I'm not telling you this to be entirely self-serving as I do think its a good idea. And when in the furture I have paid off my various loans and ccards I'm going to be joining the lending side of things.
Anyhoo, there is this company called zopa, (active in the UK, the US and Japan only) who basically had the idea of social lending. That is a lot of people lend out a small amount of money each. Other people borrow the money and pay interest on it (just like a normal unsecured loan) as they pay it back. The lenders get back a small increase on their original amount and the borrowers get a decent interest rate and the ability to pay back early or extra with no penalties. All in all its a fairly cool idea and seems to be working well.
They have had write ups about them in various UK newspapers, and probably some in the US and Japan as well. There are links from their website to these articles. http://uk.zopa.com/member/picturskew
I managed to get a loan with them so I was able to by a new car last year, which enable me to get home to see my mum every weekend whilst she was ill.
It won't be for everyone obviously, you'll probably need some credit history, but they have their own credit scoring system which seems to work quite well.
Just thought it might be useful knowledge.
Plus if you click the link above I'll get £50 off my loan if you also get a loan. I'm not telling you this to be entirely self-serving as I do think its a good idea. And when in the furture I have paid off my various loans and ccards I'm going to be joining the lending side of things.