I have made a list and checked it twice. If the p2p lending Santa Claus came to my place and asked me what I want for Christmas from Lending Club and Prosper this is what I would tell him. Here are my top five wishes for each company.
My Lending Club Wishes
1. Automated investing
We know that new notes are added to the platform four times a day (at 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm Pacific). Why can’t I have a way to invest in these notes in an automated way? Making me login four times a day to see if any of the new notes meet my criteria is a bit ridiculous. Prosper’s Automated Quick Invest has been around for over a year now. As the industry leader you should have it as well.
2. Instant transfer
Four days to transfer money is too long. Again Prosper is ahead of you on this one with their instant transfer feature. Even if you don’t do that it should only take a maximum of two days to transfer in a deposit as it does when I move money into my Vanguard or TD Ameritrade accounts.
3. Folio improvements
Folio is a joke. Since it was released over four years ago there have only been minor improvements. It needs a complete overhaul and you know it. That would be a nice Christmas present. While it is not unusable it is slow and unwieldy and has a terrible interface. Why can’t we use the same filters on Folio that we use on the primary platform? Would be nice.
4. Ability to link accounts
I have four accounts at Lending Club and I am about to open another one. Managing multiple accounts is a royal pain. There should be a way to link accounts so I can get an overall picture of my investments and to also prevent me from investing in duplicate notes.
5. Repeat borrower flag
You have told me that only around 5% of your borrowers are repeat borrowers, far less than Prosper. But why can’t you just let us know which borrowers they are? Seriously, this would probably take one programmer less than a day to implement and I know many investors would love it.
My Prosper Wishes
1. Return to fast growth
You have had a 4th quarter slump this year. I would like lots of new retail investors as well as Worth-blanket2 and MI2 to come back and start investing again. You need to get that train moving again. Onwards and upwards.
2. A large round of venture funding
When we analyzet your latest financials it looks like you only have enough money to last through the 2nd quarter of 2013. Another round of funding would give everyone some real confidence and make it a big round that can take you through to being cash flow positive.
3. Resolution of the class action lawsuit
The class action lawsuit has been hanging around now for several years. I hope we can get this resolved early in the New Year so we can all move on from it. [This wish may come true because I have been told there will be a hearing in mid-January.]
4. Add portfolios
I have invested in over 1,200 notes on Prosper over the last 2 ½ years. I have used several different strategies during this time period. I would like to be able to separate the notes from the different strategies into portfolios like I can at Lending Club.
5. Ability to download notes for analysis
While it is nice to have sites like Prosper Stats provide some analysis of our own portfolio it would be better if we could just download our notes to a spreadsheet like we can at Lending Club.
Of course, there are many more things we could wish for but that is my top ten. What would you add?
