Prosper

This might change the way people think about borrowing money. Instead of going to a bank or credit union, now people can go online and borrow from a community of individuals.

From their website this is what Prosper is:

Prosper, America's first people-to-people lending marketplace, was created to make consumer lending more financially and socially rewarding for everyone.

The way Prosper works is intuitive to people who have used eBay. Instead of listing and bidding on items, people list and bid on loans using Prosper's online auction platform.

People who want to lend set the minimum interest rate they are willing to earn and bid in increments of $50 to $25,000 on loan listings they select. People who lend can easily diversify using "standing orders", which automatically make many small loans to different borrowers.

This is going to be interesting to watch and see if it catches on like Ebay. I have already signed up to lend money because it could provide some interesting possibilities for returns.