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Weemba: Loans 2.0

March 19, 2012 By Shane Ede 11 Comments

The following post is sponsored, and I am being compensated to write it. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m doing a review, and it will be honest.

When I was first asked to do a review of Weemba, I’d never heard of it.  (See? Honesty!)  As any good reviewer will do, the first thing I did was try and figure out just what it was that I was to be reviewing.  I’ll extrapolate later on, but here’s how they put it in a recent press release.

Weemba revolutionizes the way borrowers and professional lenders connect via an online financial platform. Weemba provides, by means of unique proprietary methods and state-of-the-art safeguards, a virtual way for borrowers to post their needs and for lenders to then find those borrowers.  Protected by a nickname, borrowers post project profiles for lenders to review; interested lenders ask borrowers to access their private information, and if granted access, can contact borrowers directly. Weemba facilitates the borrower-lender interaction without interfering in the negotiation process.

It sounded a bit like a peer-to-peer solution, which, as I’m sure you’ve read, I’m a fan of, so I figured I’d give it a review.  (Doesn’t hurt that I was paid to do it too.)

Sign-Up

Signing up for Weemba was pretty easy.  In fact, if you so choose (I did.), you can sign up using your Facebook account.  You create a Community ID which will be used for their forums and support, and give them the necessary personal details.  If you’ve ever filled out a loan application, you know what I mean.  Name, address, SSN, etc.  There’s also the multiple-choice questions that they pull from your credit info (from Equifax) to verify you are who you say you are.  That’s it.  Fill in the info, verify, and you’re off.

Adding a Loan Project

Once you’ve completed the sign-up process, you’re taken directly to the loan project creation page.  You’re asked to choose between a personal and business loan type.  I chose personal, but they do have the system in place for both.  I advance through, and then get down to the nitty-gritty of the loan project.  Give it a name, tell the lenders what type of loan it is, how much you want, what amortization method you’d like (Installments, Balloon, or Lump Sum), the desired length of the loan, funding type (Full funding only or partial funding accepted), and then are given the option of adding your Equifax Credit Score.

I balked a bit here.  If you know how the credit score programs from any of the credit bureaus normally work, you’re usually signing up for a free trial to their credit score monitoring service that is followed by a paid service.  There wasn’t any mention of whether it really cost me anything or not, so I read the Terms and Conditions.  There, it does mention that some of their services do cost a monthly fee, but doesn’t mention any of the services by name, so I still couldn’t be sure.  Later, I looked in the FAQs and it does mention there that it’s “no cost”, but with no further details.  I don’t see any way around adding your credit score to a legit loan project, so if you’re adding one to seriously pursue a loan, you’ll need to do so.  I wasn’t going to publish the loan project, so I didn’t add the credit score.

Once you’ve gotten the credit score added, you get a chance to add details of the loan, some secure info (contact and some advanced qualifiers for their search engine), create a forum for your project, and then add an Avatar or videos to the loan project.  The avatar will be displayed in their search results, and on the rotator on their home page.  There’s also a “W-SEO” score added to the end.  From what I could tell, it looks to be a ranking of sorts based on how much info you filled out, and is dynamically updated after the loan is published with info on conversation, ratings, etc.

What I Think

For a company that claims to revolutionize the way “borrowers and professional lenders connect”, I saw a lack of any major revolutionary ideas.  Essentially, they act as a loan broker.  They do it online, so maybe that’s the revolutionary part?  I kind of thought that Lending Tree did that ages ago, no?  Or, maybe it’s the search combined with some decidedly social aspects?  I’ll give them that.  Sites like Lending Tree basically pull your info and then spit it out to some local lender that you’ve matched with, so giving the lenders the ability to search for some quality borrowers while giving the borrowers some social tools is a good step up.  I’m just not sure that it deserves the revolutionary PR jargon. They broker the loan, by facilitating the connection.  Once the connection is made, it’s handled privately between the borrower and the lender.

Overall, Weemba looks like a good service that will fill a need both on the borrower and lender side.  I’m a big fan of peer-to-peer because it gives the borrowers to make a case for themselves.  Something that Weemba does too.  I couldn’t find any information on who the lenders are, or if there’s a process for becoming a lender, so I’m assuming that it’s mostly institutions.  Still, a good service, that will allow borrowers to find some competitive offers for their lending business.

If you decide to give Weemba a try, here’s a few things I’d make sure to do to better your odds of finding a lender.

  • Be honest.  If there’s a story behind your debt, or the reason for the loan, share it.
  • Add a credit score.  I don’t know a lender that isn’t going to hesitate if the loan project doesn’t have a credit score.
  • Add a good avatar.  Even if it’s a picture of the car you want to buy.  A picture is going to help you. Same for video if it applies.
  • Answer Questions.  If a lender asks a question, or needs clarification, answer it promptly.

What do you think?  Would you give Weemba a try?  Why? Why not?

Filed Under: Business Finance, Credit Score, loans Tagged With: loan broker, loan project, loans, online loan broker, weemba, weemba review

How High is Inflation

March 14, 2012 By Shane Ede 9 Comments

© by snowlepard

The commonly used rate of inflation, 3%-4%, is used in so many formulas for retirement, investing, and “cost-of-living” increases.  But, is that the right number?  A recent news story released by the American Institute for Economic Research claims that the real rate of inflation is closer to 8%.

I won’t pretend to understand all of the economic talk in that article.  What I do understand is that they are claiming to be using numbers that are more reflective of the average American’s spending habits.  More importantly, if their research is even partially correct, it means that the rate of inflation could be significantly higher for some parts of the populace.  Not only does this affect the available funds for saving and spending, it could affect the numbers that many people are using for estimated retirement needs.

The research is still fairly new, as it doesn’t appear that they have that much historical data to back up their claims.  But, they do present a strong argument for a change in what we assume inflation to be, and where we get that information from.

How would a 8% inflation rate affect your finances?

 

Filed Under: economy Tagged With: cpi, economy, inflation, rate of inflation

Spread Betting: How Does it Work?

March 12, 2012 By Shane Ede 5 Comments

I’ll be the first to admit, here and elsewhere, that I’m not an investing savvy person.  I know just enough to get myself into trouble.  One of the new terms that I’ve learned just recently is Spread Betting.  Now, most anything that I’ve ever dealt with that involved the words spread and betting involved bookies, Super Bowls, and point spreads of more than a field goal.  So, when I heard the term used in a financial sense, I had to go and do a little research to see what it was all about.  And, like anything else, financially, that I research, I had to share it with you, the readers!

What is Spread Betting?

DSCN1753Spread betting, in a financial sense, is betting on the markets based on how you feel they will perform.  If you think the markets will go up, you bet on them going up (go long).  If you believe they will go down, you bet on them going down (go short).  The betting itself is pretty simple.  You simply place your bet (going up or down), and then wait to see where the markets go.  After you’ve placed your bet, you can close it to claim your winnings.

How to Spread Bet.

This can probably be best described by example.  Let’s assume that we’re going to make a bet on an index.  It can be the NASDAQ, S&P, or whatever.  We feel that it’s going to go up based on recent news.  So, we decide to go long, and bet on the index to rise.  We place a long bet.  If the stock rises, so does our profit.  The profit (or loss) is based on the spread.  If the index starts at 100 (an example), and we go long, and it rises to 200, the spread would be 100.  If we close the bet at 200, our bet is multiplied by the spread.  If we had bet $1, we would have made $100.

Risks of Spread Betting.

As you can probably imagine, anything with the term betting in it’s name has a risky side to it.  Much like our bet would be multiplied by the spread in the winning scenario above, so too would they be multiplied by the spread if we’re wrong.  If we had been wrong, and the index had dropped by 100 points, we would have lost $100.  To some degree, this can be mediated by using a stop order that will automatically close the bet should it drop (or rise, if we bet on a drop) past a certain point.  While a stop order can minimize your loss, it doesn’t remove the risk entirely.  There’s still potential for some pretty damaging losses should you be wrong often.

Is Spread Betting for you?

I’m not financial adviser, but if I were, I’d say that spread betting is something better left to those who know what they are doing.  I’m not one of those people, and until you are, you probably should avoid it.  On the other hand, if you’re a seasoned trader of the financial stock markets, and feel like you’ve got a good feel for what they are going to do on any given day, maybe it’s something you’ll want to try.  I can’t say either way.  What I can say, is that with anything that’s related to your finances, there’s no excuse for not knowing.  If you don’t know what you’re getting into, you shouldn’t get into it.  Do your research, learn the tactics and methods, and then give it a try.

photo credit: Perpetualtourist2000

Filed Under: Investing Tagged With: Investing, spread betting, spread betting forex, spread investing

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