Wells Fargo Blog is Off to a Good Start
It’s alternative lending week at The Wall Street Journal. First on Wednesday, Jane Kim profiles person-to-person lenders Prosper and Lending Club (here). Supporting e from our earlier work at Online Banking Report (see Online Banking Report #127, and note 1, 2).
Today, Anne Marie Chaker looked at Web-based student loan marketplaces (here). In the case of College Loan Market and Student Loan Scout, a full application, including credit check, is required. But that allows participating lenders to offer firm financing quotes, similar to LendingTree’s approach in the broader loan market. Apparently, this student loan sector is seeing increased activity, and scrutiny, due to the recent conflict-of-interest scandals at a number of college financial aid departments.
Each market works differently, but the basic approach is to get detailed info from the prospective borrower, then provide the borrower with a variety of specific loan options from specific lenders
- College Loan Market
- eStudent Loan
- Insight by Graduate Leverage
- Simple Tuition
- Student Loan Scout **Not yet open for business**
Of the five, only eStudentLoan has an inviting appearance, with big orange “Web 2.0” students and parents buttons and the all-imporant name-dropping of its lenders along the bottom (see screenshot below). (more…)