Ranting to /dev/null

Be your own loan shark

www.utopialoans.com (sponsored link) seems to have done for personal loans what eBay did for rummage sales. It's a peer-to-peer lending site where people put up a request for money at a stated interest rate, and lenders then bid to fund the loan, with the lowest interest rate winning.

It sounds sketchy, but it looks legit. They've got everything sorted by credit rating, and potential borrowers must provide debt-to-income information as well as credit history. The interest rates are high - 8.5%-27% - but as the risk of default is real, they're entirely appropriate. They also beat the ever-living tar out of payday loan places (250%-400%).

I'll be looking into this pretty seriously over the next few days.