I just got a loan funded at Prosper.com for $5000 at 10.89%. Now this isn't the greatest interest rate ever, but it is probably at least as good as the credit union would give me on a signature loan. Years ago a signature loan cost me 14% there, so I'm doubting it's improved much.

So, anyway, point is, average joes like you and me loaned me this money through Prosper. I will make monthly payments for 3 years (auto-drafted from my bank account) to pay this off. The most they lend is $25,000 and the term for all of their loans is 36 months.

The GREAT news is that I got this loan to pay off ~$4600 on a credit card that is robbing me at 28.4%, so my payment to Prosper is only a few dollars more than my minimum payment to this card. That's awesome. In three years I will have payed off a couple of more cards in addition to this one and my credit rating will almost surely have climbed from the current B to an A or AA by then. The only reason it isn't an AA now is because of my debt-to-income ratio, having used/abused credit cards for far too long.

Moral of the story: if you have a few bucks that you'd like to loan to people so they don't have to rely on bloodsuckers banks or credit cards, check out Prosper. And, if you need a small loan to crush your bank/credit card debts, consider the average joes, like you and me, at Prosper as well.