Comments (scroll down to add your own):

1. Just curious, what do you think is a good minimal investment to get started in Lending Club? (In other words, I dont have a lot of money – LOL)

   Comment by Gerry S — Oct 7th 2009 @ 3:13 pm

2. That’s a hell of a good report, my congrats to you!

   Comment by John DeFlumeri Jr — Oct 7th 2009 @ 4:17 pm

3. Gerry: The minimum investment is $25 per note, so you can work up from there. Obviously, the more notes that you have, the less that a bad note will hurt you.

   Comment by Nickel — Oct 7th 2009 @ 5:36 pm

4. I got all excited to sign up and start investing last month when I realized the state of Maryland forbids it!! What a dissapointment…I had some free cash I wanted to play around with if you ever create your own lending club, you better let me know.

   Comment by J Money — Oct 7th 2009 @ 6:34 pm

5. Great Rate so far Nickle. I became an investor there last month. It is really quite interesting and I’m enjoying the learning process. So Far – so good. Next month, I’ll add an additional amount for investing. Slow and steady.

   Comment by Patty — Oct 7th 2009 @ 6:37 pm

6. Awesome my rate is around the same. Have you thought about selling the bad note?

   Comment by Eric — Oct 7th 2009 @ 7:13 pm

7. I have played around with the idea of putting some money into Lending Club. What is the time investment on your end so far? (i.e. is it necessary for you to spend a lot of time researching/analyzing things on the site or can you pretty much still get a good return by just doing some initial research and then leaving it be?)

   Comment by Credit Card Chaser — Oct 7th 2009 @ 9:32 pm

8. Hello Nickle,

   Can you advise on the best way to minimize brokerage fees? I.e., do they chart per note, based on your balance, based on the profit, etc …?

   Thank you

   Comment by curious — Oct 8th 2009 @ 9:02 am

9. Eric: I think it’s too late to sell it. When it first showed up as late, I probably could’ve sold it at a discount, but at this point I think it’s pretty much a lost cause. It’s been sent to collections, so I can’t imagine anyone wanting to buy it.

   CCC: That’s actually a good idea for a dedicated post — how I choose loans, and how long it takes me. Keep an eye out…

   curious: They make their money by charging a fee to borrowers, and also taking a small slice (1%) of all amounts paid to lenders. There are no brokerage fees per se.

   Comment by Nickel — Oct 8th 2009 @ 11:10 am

10. I find it surprising that the minimum amount that can be borrowed is $25. Who would go through all this trouble with making payments etc. on a principal of $25? Did the guy need the money to buy lunch or something?

    I don’t want to sound rich or anything, because I’m definitely not. But if I needed 25 bucks that badly, I could think of some easier ways to get it than to take out a loan.

    Comment by Brian — Oct 8th 2009 @ 1:44 pm

11. I think it’s the minimum amount because the actual loan is “chunked” out. So if someone wanted to borrow $500, let’s say, it would mean 20 mini-loans of $25 scattered all over for investors to join in (like Nickel).

    At least that’s what I gather when I initially tried signing up. One of my friends has like 100 loans of $25 in his account, so I guess it’s a pretty popular #.

    Comment by J. Money — Oct 8th 2009 @ 2:12 pm

12. Brian: J. Money is correct. Most loans are on the order of thousands of dollars (up to $25k), but they are split up into notes of as little as $25 for investors to buy. This allows investors to spread their risk around, and also allows borrowers to get their money without LC having to find someone willing to lend out a few grand all in one shot.

    Comment by Nickel — Oct 8th 2009 @ 2:19 pm

13. I was thinking about using our IRA to fund a LC account, but it will cost $250 a year to do it, as they use a 3rd party for IRAs. Do you have any ideas to somehow avoid this cost?

    Comment by Heather Idoni — Oct 29th 2009 @ 9:58 am

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