Scott On Money

I often want to vary the amount I’m willing to invest in a Prosper loan based on the final interest rate. I do have a life to live so I can always be there to place a last minute bid.

What do I do?

I split my bid into multiple bids. Say I see a promising loan at 12.5% with two days left. If I can beat 12% with this particular loan I’d like to invest 200 dollars. If I can only get 11% I still would like to invest 70 dollars.

I place two bids, the first bid for 70 dollars at 11% and the second big for 130 dollars at 12%.

This works well when the time period is very short as the interest rate is not likely to change by more than a couple of points. It is far less useful 5-10 days out as the rate may change by over five points.

The reason is the Prosper minimum of $50 per bid (and the fact that I am not a billionaire). You could place 12 bids at 0.5% intervals and go away to Hawaii for a week if you had enough money that you were willing to risk 600 dollars on one loan. Granted this is a pretty extreme case. But I do find myself wanting to bid 50-120 dollars based on the final rate in three or four steps and this can’t be done.

So, to the folks at Prosper, how about a bid add on feature where you can bid additional amounts at a higher rate on a listing where you already have 50 dollars invested at a higher rate?

For everyone else go ahead, use bid splitting and enjoy your time away from the computer!

If you have time read my other entries on Prosper.