Prosper, a popular peer-to-peer (P2P) lending network that offers unsecured personal loans with terms of 3 or 5 years, has embraced the sharing economy with gusto. By matching individual borrowers with individual or institutional investors willing to lend funds at competitive interest rates, Prosper cuts out the middle man (traditional banks or credit unions). Relative to those institutions, Prosper has more relaxed approval standards and faster funding times for borrowers.The platform earns money through origination and servicing fees. Its top competitors include other P2P lenders, such … [Read more...]
Lending Club Review – Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Financial Lending
Lending Club bills itself as the world's most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) lending network. As a classic example of the emerging sharing economy, the platform connects thousands of individual and business borrowers with regular people willing to fund their loans. In doing so, it eliminates the need for borrowers to approach traditional banks and credit unions - whose lending standards may be much more stringent than Lending Club's - to obtain financing. Lending Club accepts borrowers with all sorts of motivations, from debt consolidation and credit card refinancing to funding a down payment on a … [Read more...]
Xero Review – Online Accounting & Bookkeeping System
Xero is a full-service online accounting and bookkeeping system that caters to freelancers, solo entrepreneurs, and small to midsize business owners. Its easy-to-use bookkeeping tools make it a simple solution for people who can't afford an in-house accounting team to keep track of corporate finances.Xero bills itself as an alternative to QuickBooks. It shares many of the same features, including bank account integration, invoicing and expense tracking, payroll services, and tax tracking. Like QuickBooks, it also targets accounting and bookkeeping professionals, providing generous … [Read more...]
SoFi Review – Personal Loans and Refinancing for Qualified Borrowers
Even college graduates who find great jobs can struggle with debt for years after leaving school, especially if they have expensive private student loans. And, for borrowers who can't make ends meet, it's nearly impossible to discharge student debts in bankruptcy. The result is an unending cascade, possibly decades long, of financial repercussions.SoFi aims to change this glum reality. Using peer-to-peer lending between members of the public and qualified student borrowers, it launched earlier this decade with a student loan refinancing product for graduates of more than 2,000 U.S … [Read more...]
Marcus by Goldman Sachs Review – Fixed Rate, No Fee Personal Loans
Marcus by Goldman Sachs® is a fixed-rate, no-fee, unsecured personal loan provider positioned as a straightforward and potentially lower-cost alternative to credit cards. Its biggest selling point bears repeating: Loans from Marcus by Goldman Sachs® never carry fees, ever.You can borrow up to $40,000 in a single loan from Marcus by Goldman Sachs®, much higher than credit limits allowed by most entry-level cash back credit cards and bank-issued unsecured personal loans. Though loans from Marcus by Goldman Sachs® have multiple use cases, they're particularly useful for consumers looking to … [Read more...]
The Amex EveryDay® Credit Card from American Express – Review
The Amex EveryDay® Credit Card from American Express (a Money Crashers partner) is a cash back credit card that utilizes a complicated but versatile point system to reward users. It has no annual fee and accelerated point earnings (2 points per $1 spent) at the supermarket, plus 1 point per $1 spent on everything else.EveryDay competes with a number of other cash back and rewards credit cards, including American Express's own Blue Cash Everyday, Blue Cash Preferred, EveryDay Preferred, and Plenti, as well as non-Amex cards such as Capital One Quicksilver Credit Card, Discover it, Chase … [Read more...]
NeoBudget Review – Online Virtual Envelope Budgeting System
NeoBudget is an online budgeting system for tracking household income and expenses from one intuitive, user-friendly dashboard. It allows you to quickly enter or import purchases and income transactions from your bank and credit card accounts, showing your entire financial picture at a glance. It also makes it easy to categorize your expenses and set spending limits for each, helping you stay fiscally responsible without having to use spreadsheets, balance a checkbook, or view your bank account balance everyday. This is particularly useful if you live in a multi-person household with several … [Read more...]
Silvercar Review – High-End Luxury Airport Rental Cars
Silvercar is a bridge between traditional rental car companies, such as Enterprise and Hertz, and carsharing services such as Car2Go and ZipCar. With a powerful app that handles all aspects of the rental experience, Silvercar is a high-end airport rental car option that offers premium vehicles only - for the most part, Audi sedans and crossover SUVs.Silvercar dramatically simplifies the rental process, eliminating lines, paperwork, interaction with counter staff (in most cases), and exorbitant refueling fees. It's highly convenient, saving customers time at both pickup and dropoff. And, … [Read more...]
Mint Review – Interactive Budgeting & Financial Planning App
How do you manage your personal budget? Perhaps you're a fan of old-fashioned envelope budgeting. Maybe you use computer spreadsheets to track your income and obligations in one place. You might even use prepaid debit cards to control your spending.Mint is a powerful, interactive budgeting option that costs nothing to set up and use. Backed by Intuit, the same company that supports TurboTax, the Mint system is designed to create a complete picture of your household finances, whether you manage them individually or hold joint accounts with your spouse.Mint syncs with deposit accounts, … [Read more...]
Bank of Internet USA Review – Full-Service Online Banking
Bank of Internet USA (often referred to simply as "BoI" or "BofI") is an online-only bank that offers a variety of deposit accounts and credit products for consumers and businesses. As is usually the case for U.S.-based deposit institutions, funds held in BoI's checking, savings, money market, and CD accounts are covered by FDIC insurance, up to $250,000 per account.BoI has a number of notable features, including an attractive Rewards Checking Account that can yield up to 1.25% and a full suite of business banking resources, which often aren't available at consumer-facing online banks. BoI … [Read more...]
First Internet Bank Review – Full Service Online-Only Banking
First Internet Bank (previously known as First Internet Bank of Indiana, and commonly referred to as, simply, "First IB") has a legitimate claim to its boastful name - it has been offering a full suite of online-only banking services since the days of dial-up. Founded in the late 1990s, this publicly traded (NASDAQ: INBK), Indianapolis-based company features consumer checking, savings, money market, CD, and IRA CD accounts, as well as credit cards, personal loans, student loans, mortgages, and home equity lines of credit.First IB also has a business banking arm that features checking, … [Read more...]
