Personal Loan/Line of Credit

[arebelspy]

Anyone have any experience getting a personal loan or line of credit recently (not HELOC)?

Any company recommendations or other advice?

[Zoot Allures]

Do you bank with a credit union? My credit union gave me a 10k line of credit at 6.25% when I signed up.

[Mike Key]

Yup, credit union is the way to go. I rebuilt my credit with Personal Loans. I started with a $2500.00 personal loan. Put it right into savings and setup automatic payments so it would be paid off in 10 months. Then I went and got another loan for $5000.00 and paid that off over another 10 months.

[TLV]

+1 for credit unions. I got a $1k LOC as an unemployed teenager from mine. I've never used it, but it's more than twice as old as anything else on my credit report.

[arebelspy]

I'm not looking to build my credit, I have excellent credit.  I'm looking for a loan for certain investment opportunities that are presenting themselves.

I'll be taking a business plan to some banks to try to get a business loan, but those are hard to come by, so with good credit and a decent income I'd like to look into personal loans as well, that may be much easier to qualify for.

I'll check into local credit unions.  I know a bunch of our small local banks folded in the last few years due to the subprime problem, but I don't know much about credit unions.

[Zoot Allures]

I might add that I've been in minor overdraft situations a couple of times with my checking account, and my credit union simply tapped my line of credit to make up the difference. And the amazing part is they did not charge me a single penny in overdraft fees.

[Bank]

I can't recommend this service personally, because I don't use it, but have you considered peer-to-peer lending sites like http://www.prosper.com/?  I have some friends that invested through it a year or so ago.  They seemed happy at the time.

Edit:  It was actually called Lending Club.

[Mike Key]

I'm not looking to build my credit, I have excellent credit.  I'm looking for a loan for certain investment opportunities that are presenting themselves.

I'll be taking a business plan to some banks to try to get a business loan, but those are hard to come by, so with good credit and a decent income I'd like to look into personal loans as well, that may be much easier to qualify for.

I'll check into local credit unions.  I know a bunch of our small local banks folded in the last few years due to the subprime problem, but I don't know much about credit unions.

Personal Loan would still be an easy route, it's money to do whatever you want with. But in most cases it can be limited with higher interest rate. My bank actually offered to give me $10,000 recently at 9% which I didn't think was to terrible for a personal loan, but I have no need for that. They did have the option for secured and collateral personal loans. Unless you're trying to avoid collateral.

[AJ]

What kind of money are you looking for? Under $20-30k you could probably find a decent balance transfer promotion for a credit card. I've seen them recently without a fee at decent (but not zero) rates. Navy FCU had a good one a couple months ago, but I think it is expired now. I'll keep my eyes peeled...

[CeciliaW]

I can't recommend this service personally, because I don't use it, but have you considered peer-to-peer lending sites like http://www.prosper.com/?  I have some friends that invested through it a year or so ago.  They seemed happy at the time.

Edit:  It was actually called Lending Club.

After watching Prosper 'maneuver' for the last 4 or 5 years I'd stay Far Far Away from that group. I've not seen the same kind of wierdness on Lending Club, but this is not a recommendation, either.

[AJ]

I can't recommend this service personally, because I don't use it, but have you considered peer-to-peer lending sites like http://www.prosper.com/?  I have some friends that invested through it a year or so ago.  They seemed happy at the time.

Edit:  It was actually called Lending Club.

After watching Prosper 'maneuver' for the last 4 or 5 years I'd stay Far Far Away from that group. I've not seen the same kind of wierdness on Lending Club, but this is not a recommendation, either.

To my knowledge, all of the weirdness over at Prosper had to do with the investor side. I haven't heard any reports of borrowers that got a raw deal. I think you'd be fine borrowing from either, except that for someone like arebelspy that has great credit there may be better rates available elsewhere.