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Investing on LendingClub is extremely fun. They give you CSV data of all past and upcoming loans to play with and show you your Investor Percentile, which compares your return to other LendingClub lenders. I enjoy competing to get the highest return by predicting which loans will default based on past data. Currently I'm in the 92nd percentile of lenders.

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On average how quick do you see a return from your investment (loan) on this site? How common are losses and what assurances does lendingclub give?

I'm just wondering if it'd be a good thing to sign up for and play around with, I've currently got a spare $30k sitting around not doing anything (except losing value I suppose).

Payments are made in equal amounts each month over a 3 or 5 year period.

Losses depend on the kinds of loans someone invests in, so this varies.

These are unsecured loans, so defaults are normal. My strategy is to try to limit myself to the minimum per-loan investment, which is $25 per loan. This way a given default won't significantly harm me (I'd only be out $25 per defaulted loan).

Of course, none of this is investment advice, read the prospectus, etc...

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