So, here's the latest update:
I "applied" (soft pull) for the loan in the afternoon of 3/11. I was informed that it would be up to 24 hours before the loan was listed (where it could be seen by and funded by investors.) I was also informed that an address verification postcard would be sent to my home.
By the time I left for work on 3/12, around 7:30 am, it still wasn't listed. By the time I got to work about an hour later, it not only was listed, but fully funded by investors. Seriously, it got funded in less than 20 minutes after going live.
I was asked to upload 4 documents: a voided check, a utility bill from the last 30 days, a W2 and a pay stub. In the 10 minutes it took me to gather my documents, they had already verified my W2 and pay stub elsewhere (not sure how/where, but when I went to the documents page to upload, those two showed verified.) The instructions stated that the documents may take up to a week to verify.
By the end of Thursday, my utility bill was verified. The voided check took the longest, but by last night, it too was verified, and I got the email that my loan was funded and should be in my bank account within 2 to 4 days. No other word on the address verification post card (I assume this is a preliminary item, for people who might register with Prosper but not pull the trigger right away. Since I went through the full process, they were able to verify my address by other means.)
Also, once your lising is funded by investors, and your documents verified, they will ultimately perform a hard pull on your Experian (which is my best report, both score and pull wise.) This makes sense; they want to make sure no material changes have occurred between the listing and end of the process. And, I'm ultimately fine with it, since it was successful. But, I misunderstood this point, and I want to make sure that others who are considering a loan through Prosper due to the soft pull are aware of this (ie, you're better off going through Lending Club if you qualify and are sensitive to pulls.)
I'll leave my final final grade once I see the money in my account, but so far, I have to say that I recommend Prosper for those who may be in similar circumstances as me. In short:
The cons:
- Higher APR than a bank or CU
- Successfully funded/verified loan results in a hard pull
- You do technically run the risk of not getting your loan if investors do not fund it. But, this is a no harm, no foul scenario since the hard pull doesn't happen until AFTER your listing is funded by investors, so you haven't wasted an HP if it doesn't happen.
The pros:
- The soft pull up-front lets you know whether you qualify or not. Great for rebuilders like me who are nervous with a traditional bank or CU loan (and, who don't want the psycological damage that comes with a hard pull denial.) Although you will ultimately see a hard pull on your Experian, it's at the end of the process, after all is said and done.
- Lower APR than other consumer finanace loan companies. Waaaay lower APR than a payday loan company.
- If your loan isn't fully funded, you can still opt to borrow what was funded, as long as you obtained at least 70% funding.
- The process is easy and in my experience, very quick. No going somewhere and dropping off loan documents. It takes a minute to apply. A couple of minutes to upload documents (I was able to pull PDF copies of everything but my voided check. The check I was able to upload by taking a picture with my phone's camera. Your docs may take slightly longer if your providers don't have PDF options and you have to scan them.)
