Comments on: GreenNote Offers More Peer-to-Peer Loans To Tackle the College Funding Gap

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:14:54 +0000

I think greennote is a nice site. It seem its webmaster is a hot member at a dating site. It called http://www.richromances.com or something. More pictures can be found under her profile.

By: Trademanufacturer

Trademanufacturer — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:11:45 +0000

GreenNote nice???

By: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » GreenNoteのP2Pな学資ローン

TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » GreenNoteのP2Pな学資ローン — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:27:23 +0000

[...] ［原文へ］ [...]

By: StartupNewz.com

StartupNewz.com — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:17:37 +0000

GreenNote Offers Loans Through Social Networks To Tackle the College Funding Gap…

GreenNote Offers Loans Through Social Networks if you are having trouble paying for college. The idea behind GreenNote is simple, asking your social network for help, and resulting loans tend to have a lower default rates (due to social pressure)….

By: Anon

Anon — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:03:19 +0000

There is another peer to peer student loan marketplace called CapAlly. Looks like they are a hybrid of both GreenNote and Fynanz. Their goal, as stated on their website, is to link students to financial support and professional guidance.

http://www.CapAlly.com

By: tentejswi

tentejswi — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:08:57 +0000

amazing idea ! p2p loans thru social networking. wats next? And yes micro-financing is defly not such a bad idea

By: Jonathon Lunardi

Jonathon Lunardi — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:57:30 +0000

I know many of the readers here are from a California perspective where $25K won’t last but a few months, but these micro loans available from GreenNote are really an important part of our economy. Most of the large banks (Citi, Chase, etc.) are dropping their student loan programs at spcific schools, mostly community colleges and small public schools. They are doing this because the community college students that graduate only need about $4K per year and do not promise to make six figure salaries upon graduation. I see organizations like GreenNote providing an invaluable service to this level of student population need who do have large networks and might be able to gather enough people to provide yearly tuition.

The other big benefit of GreenNote is that is locks the interest rate to the federally regulated rate of 6.8%. Many students who get turned down by the big banks have to choose a private loan company where interest rates can soar to 20%. This means when students graduate they are in significant debt for many years. This causes students to not pursue higher education or just pursue jobs that pay extremely well and not teaching jobs or civil service jobs.

I am working on a new model to help such students, not in providing loans, but in providing pay back methods. Charity for Debt is a new non profit that pays student loan debt off for time spent working at a local charity or non profit. We hope to partner with companies like GreenNote and SimpleTuition.com to allow more students the opportunity of education, which many of us take for granted. Check it out if you are interested - http://www.charityfordebt.org - we are just getting started in DC and Dallas.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:12:42 +0000

There.

Now, how do I add a video comment (heh heh)?

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:10:24 +0000

I’ll glady take my clothes off for just about anybody who is willing to pay.

Heck, I’ll do it for free right now!

(stands up, begins unbuttoning pants . . . )

By: eve

eve — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:58:09 +0000

I can’t find myfreetuition.com that you mentioned (#6). I could use the free tuition. What’s the URL? Can’t be the obvious one, there.

By: Russell

Russell — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:27:55 +0000

Chris, the reason no one sets up a site like that is because what you have described it’s pretty much against federal law. There are a ton of federal regulations for good reason about how companies take investment, the disclosures they need to provide and the sophistication of the investors who are allowed to participate. Angel investors are filling the gap you’re talking about right now but pretty much all Angels are accredited investors which means they have more than $1M in assets. Combined Angels invest more than Venture Capital firms each year with some of the more prominent groups such as Keiretsu forum funding $30M+ in deals yearly. The reason any average Joe isn’t allowed to invest at this level is because there have been 10,000s of people ripped off over the years by people less honest than yourself and the protections in place are absolutely necessary. It’s one thing to fund a loan for college or to pay off credit cards but $2M for a company needs to be more organized to protect the investors.

By: klub

klub — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:11:04 +0000

This is weak. myfreetuition.com giving coeds tuition money to take off their clothes will blow this out of the water…

By: Jim Hirshfield

Jim Hirshfield — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:05:51 +0000

I’m interested to see how this pans out over the next few months. I think the height of the student loan annual cycle picks up in June as students get their packages from schools - itemizing all the expenses.

The other thing that makes this timely for them and http://www.fynanz.com is the article in the NYTimes today about lenders like Citibank and Chase deciding NOT to lend to students at community colleges and mid-tier schools. So student need to seek out alternatives like P2P lending sites - and they should probably stay away from prosper.com and such IF they want the tax advantage. (As I understand it, the interest on student loans is tax deductible…and it may be tough to prove it was a student loan if it didn’t follow the stringent guidelines that I imagine the likes of Fynanz follow).

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:36:38 +0000

Since nobody else is replying here,

Realistically a 25k loan will last you no more than 2 months in Southern California if you’re thrifty.

I think there is a real need for a p2p website that mirrors venture capital investments where prospective borrowers post their own term sheets to the public. Like a pseudo stock exchange but with guaranteed investment returns.

If you’re going to ask why I don’t implement such a good idea, I have no resources in financial consulting to realize it.
I think such a project would be far more popular than these microloans for Americans. The typical American adult has more than 25k cash on hand so it makes these microloans pointless for our public.

By: John

John — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:32:59 +0000

The social aspect is interesting.

It gives family and friends a great way to help someone with their college education by allowing them to give more than they could.

However, will the fact that the lenders are relatives increase the default rate?

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:05:05 +0000

“I have more than 25k on my 3 credit cards. ”

Just to clarify, I have more than 25k of credit, not debt.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:04:24 +0000

I signed up for prosper.com but found out that there is a 25k limit.

I have more than 25k on my 3 credit cards. That’s useless. I actually need a 2 million dollar investment for my business.

Where is the propser.com for me?

These small amounts are completely pointless. The whole point of p2p borrowing is to get money that the bank thinks is too big a risk right?

Why not have a prosper.com for me or for SMEs?