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Borrowing > Your listing > General Advice

General Advice for writing your Listing

Your listing text your chance to tell the lenders why they should bid on your loan. The better your listing text, the more lenders will bid. The more lenders bid, the lower your monthly payments on the loan.

Each listing should answer the following questions:

  • Who are you?

    Prosper is a person-to-person lending exchange. If lenders don't know the person they're lending to, they wont entrust you with their money.

  • What do you do?

    Lenders like to know what your job is. Tell them where you work (as much as you're comfortable), how long you've worked there, and similar things. Lenders like to know this in order to estimate their risk.

  • What do you need the money for?

    Lenders like to consider the use of proceeds. Some lenders specialize on debt consolidation listings, some on small business loans. Others bid on listings where the money will be used for some quirky purpose. Many lenders also use this information to estimate the risk they take by lending you money. If you don't supply this information, your loan will be ignored.

  • What is your financial situation?

    Give your income or an approximation of it. Tell the lenders how much money you spend monthly, and what you spend it on.

  • What debts do you have?

    Give the amount of your current debts. Tell the lenders how much you pay monthly.

  • What are you doing to improve your situation?

    If you're in a tight situation and need a little help, fine. A lot of lenders are willing to help out. But, its you who'll have to do the heavy lifting in the end! Tell us what you are doing yourself to get you out of the mess.

  • How did derogatory items on your credit report come to be?

    (If present) If there are delinquencies or other issues on your report, tell the lenders what happened. Tell us how you're fixing it. Since lenders can see this data its better to address this directly, rather than trying to hide it.

  • Where is the proof?

    Sometimes, you'll need to substantiate claims made in your listing to improve your credibility. You can do this either by providing the documentation yourself (e.g. scans of your credit report or paystub, medical bills, ...) or by having me (Daniel) look over them. While the former adds slightly more credibility, the latter preserves your privacy.
Here are some general hints that you could consider when writing your listing:

  • Be specific.

    Lenders can't read your mind. The more specific you are, the less room for misunderstandings.

  • Give numbers.

    If possible, give numbers. Don't tell the lenders that you "pay a huge interest rate on my credit cards". Tell them the APR of your card.

  • Post photos

    Lenders are humans - they like to see pictures!

  • Check the spelling and grammar of your listing.

    This should be self-evident.

  • Structure your listing into paragraphs.

    Nobody wants to read a huge amount of text.