New batch available for pledges!

Our latest batch is now live and available for pledging. We’re excited to help find funding for our 11 borrowers ranging from graduating master’s students to working professionals to coding bootcamp admits. With over $120K available for pledging, use of funds range from student loan refinancing to living expenses. Interest rates range from 4-6% with loan terms between 1-3 years.

One of our coding bootcamp admits has even created his own supplemental site to share his passion for coding and detail his upcoming journey and expenses. Check it out here.

Browse through our listings today and make a return on your savings while helping others save money and advance to the next stage of their lives! Pledges are effortless to make and first-time account setup only takes minutes.

Questions or thoughts? Shoot us a note at questions@wefinance.co – we’d love to hear from you!

WeFinance is a platform for crowdfunding loans and can be used to access the lowest possible rates for refinancing existing debt or taking out new debt. Find out more at https://www.wefinance.co

Pages From the WeFinance Launch Playbook

We’re really excited to have officially launched our platform just over two weeks ago. Our launch borrower batch is seeking around $200K in loan capital from their extended networks and our lender network. Half of our borrowers have already reached their minimum targets, ensuring that both current and future pledges will become funded loans. Another quarter of our borrowers have already passed the halfway mark to their minimums, with nearly two weeks still remaining for this current batch to fund. Below, we’ve highlighted a few thoughts and lessons learned from our launch.

Think about launch traffic sources
We were featured in Product Hunt and TechCrunch during our launch, and we shared this with our existing networks using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and direct email. Of these, Product Hunt was the largest source of traffic, representing more than half of all new users in the first week after launch, even though our feature came 5 days after launch (versus the TechCrunch article, which came out the morning of the launch). However, both TechCrunch and Product Hunt produced a substantial number of qualified leads, and it’s important to remember that articles with paragraphs of content like our feature in TechCrunch give potential customers much more information about your product compared to services like Product Hunt and Hacker News, which primarily direct users to your site for more information. A new site visitor who has read an article about you will be of different value than one who is reading about you for the first time on your website. Make sure your site is prepared to offer a good experience for both! And of course, make sure you have Google Analytics or other services installed so you can observe traffic sources and play up the channels where you’re doing well.

Create a list of contacts for direct outreach prior to launch
Getting attention and buzz at launch is very important. We made a list of people close to us, both personally and professionally, to share the news of our launch, which was critical in kickstarting the conversation about our platform within our networks (and led to more sharing beyond our networks). Seeding this initial conversation for our networks to share was incredibly important, similar to how we encourage our own borrowers to seed excitement, support, and pledges from the closest people in their networks.

Be as responsive and flexible as possible during the initial launch
Our ability to be responsive during the launch period was critical. While we had laid the foundation to make our public launch newsworthy, there was uncertainty around when different channels would take off and which coverage would have the most traction. Therefore, we kept our schedules flexible to be able to respond to important inbound e-mails and messages.

For example, Product Hunt picked us up several days after we were originally submitted, on a Sunday. Interested PH followers began asking questions about the platform and we made ourselves available throughout the day to respond and keep the conversation going.

Leverage social media as much as possible
Using social media goes beyond posting a link to a TechCrunch article on our Facebook page or tweeting a link to our Product Hunt feature. We had to think about ways to engage people to share, not just consume. Given the importance of social media and social sharing of our platform, we encouraged our borrowers to use our launch press as tools to further engage their own networks on their listings.

Seek opportunities to piggyback on the launch in the coming weeks
The launch in TechCrunch and Product Hunt brought us a huge increase in traffic and inbound interest to borrow and lend on our platform. While that initial bump in traffic is temporary, we continue to seek creative opportunities to use enthusiasm around our launch to enhance future announcements, including the final days of our current listings and the launch of our next batch.

Our current listings close at 11:59PM PT on May 1, 2015. Browse today and pledge! If you’re interested in borrowing or learning more about the platform, visit http://www.wefinance.co/borrow.

Launching our first public batch!

We’re excited to announce our public launch with our largest batch to date, consisting of 15 borrowers ranging from college, JD, and MBA grads refinancing student loans, to coding bootcamp admits seeking funding for living expenses. Take a look through our listings page to browse borrower profiles.

These 15 borrowers represent over $200,000 in potential funding, the majority of which are student loan refinancings. Many of our borrowers are graduates of top universities and are now working professionals or have secured full-time jobs following graduate school.

Lend today to help these people save money while earning a return on your stagnant savings. Pledges are quick and easy, even for first-time lenders. Browse our redesigned listings and home page, and make a pledge today!

Thoughts or questions? Shoot us a note at info@wefinance.co – we’d love to hear from you!

WeFinance is a free platform for crowdfunding loans and can be used to access the lowest possible rates for refinancing existing debt or taking out new debt. Find out more at https://www.wefinance.co

Why Refinance?

The word “refinancing” conjures up images of cheesy, sleazy TV and radio ads purporting to bring you a ton of savings. Refinancing has traditionally been associated with mortgages, as housing debt makes up almost 75% of consumer lending (see NY Fed). With interest rates at historic lows for the last few years, banks and other financing providers have taken advantage of the great rate at which they themselves can borrow, allowing them to sell consumers new loans at lower rates. As a result, they benefit from new customers and a wealth of fees that come with the origination of new loans. Despite some costs associated with refinancing and the questionable advertising, refinancing does have its merits when considered carefully, and not just for mortgages.

Refinancing reduces the interest you pay on your loan(s)
Refinancing helps consumers save money by lowering the rate (and often, improving other terms) on their existing debt, reducing monthly payments or allowing them to pay off the loan more quickly. Changes in just a percentage point or two over the life of a loan can result in meaningful savings. For instance, for a $20,000 loan at 4% interest compounded monthly would take a monthly payment of $443.08 to pay off in 4 years. However, at 6% interest, that same loan with that repayment schedule would still carry a balance of over $1,000 at the 4-year mark. This opportunity for savings grows as the loan terms (years) and loan sizes ($$) of these refinanceable sums increase.

Refinancing doesn’t just apply to home loans
Student loan refinancings are picking up. Lenders have picked up on the fact that federal student loan rates are the same no matter who you are or what your credit history is. The government doesn’t adjust rates for factors such as graduating from a great school or landing a solid, new job. While government-subsidized rates have helped many gain access to education, there are many people with very low default risk who deserve better rates.

Watch out for fees and other costs
Many refinancing opportunities come with a host of fees, ranging from origination fees (often a percentage of the debt being financed), application fees, and for home loans, costs to cover inspections, appraisals, and insurance. Do your research ahead of time to ensure that a new lender won’t charge you an arm and a leg.

Don’t fall prey to inertia
Inertia is the biggest roadblock stopping consumer from reaping the benefits of refinancing. Once borrowers have accepted the terms of their loans and have gotten into a steady cycle of repayments, it’s easy to continue making those payments and not face what seems like a lot of work and pushing paper to save an unclear amount of money by refinancing. Banks love this inertia: even if market rates have gone down or there are other reasons that a borrower deserves a lower rate, banks count on the overwhelming majority of customers to stay put and not demand better terms.

The market is constantly changing and you are constantly changing. When things change for the better in the form of market interest rates declining or you lowering your default risk (e.g., the value of your home increases, landing a new or better job), you deserve better terms, especially on something that adds up as quickly as interest payments over time. The more debt you carry, the more benefit you will gain from refinancing. It’s always a good time to shop around to see what your options are, whether you’re only a year or two into your loan or a year or two from paying it off.

WeFinance is a free platform for crowdfunding loans and can be used to access the lowest possible rates for refinancing existing debt or taking out new debt. Find out more at http://www.wefinance.co

Our latest borrower batch is live, and so is our redesigned site!

Our latest borrower batch is now live!  There’s $140,000 available to lend in this batch to great borrowers from a variety of backgrounds.  You can check them out at our completely redesigned site, with borrower endorsements and other new features that help highlight borrowers, their stories and connections.  Lending is still quick and easy, so check out the listings and make a pledge!  Help reliable people save money while making a nice return for yourself.

Have thoughts about the redesign?  We’d love to hear them!  Share your thoughts here or at redesign@wefinance.co.

Last Chance to Borrow with the October WeFinance Batch!

It’s almost time for our next batch of borrowers to go live!  The October WeFinance batch goes live October 6th.  If you’d like to save money on an existing debt with us, now’s the time to join the program!  Visit https://www.wefinance.co/borrower_interest, tell us a little about yourself and we’ll be in touch to discuss.

Our next batch of listings is live!

The next batch of listings is live!

wefinance.co/listings

Our borrowers’ combined goals this batch exceed $130,000. That’s a huge opportunity  to help some responsible people save some money while earning a 4% return for yourself. You can loan as much or as little as you like and diversify among borrowers with no extra work, since all the payments in both directions are automated. Check them all out!  And stay tuned to the blog for more progress updates as the pledges come in.

Some Things the US Total Student Loan Debt is Bigger Than

Issues of student debt move in and out of the news spotlight from time to time.  As individuals, the vast majority of us have student loans, had student loans, or know many people who do.  But one graphic from popular ‘nerd humor’ comic XKCD (described as such with love!) really puts the issue in perspective.  

At the time this chart was put out (2011), the total value of outstanding student loans in the US–over $955 billion–was bigger than:

• Total annual spending on all primary and secondary education in the US ($612B)
• The endowments of the 63 wealthiest universities in the US combined ($277.5B), by a factor of more than 3
• The combined annual profit of all the companies in the Fortune 500 ($708.6B)
• All state taxes collected nationwide ($642B) 

And many other things.  Check out the graphic for yourself!  The student loan section is in the leftmost part of the ‘billions’ box.

Of course, these figures are all changing over time, but with outstanding student debt having surpassed $1 trillion back in 2012, it’s likely many of these comparisons have only gotten worse.

Borrower Applications for Our Next Batch are Due August 8th

We’re excited to announce the deadline to apply to borrow in the next WeFinance batch is August 8th!  We’ve already talked to many great applicants, with developing careers in law, business, tech, health, public policy, education, and other fields, who are ready to stop overpaying interest on their student loans and similar debts by borrowing from real people at a 4% fixed interest rate, and there’s still time to join them.  If you’ve used our interest calculator or five-year plan calculator, you know that even refinancing a small share of your existing debt could save you thousands of dollars.

WeFinance borrowers make listings which share a little bit of information about themselves and offer terms for their desired borrowing, then choose how those listings are shared.  Many borrowers take advantage of our growing lender network of leaders in these same fields–real people who are sick of getting garbage interest rates on their savings at the bank and who are excited about empowering their future colleagues.  Other borrowers also extend the option to loan to their own friends, family, and colleagues, who enjoy the dual benefit of supporting someone they know and getting a better return on their savings.  Most borrowers do both, maximizing the amount they’re able to refinance at a lower rate.  By refinancing smaller amounts from a variety of individuals, borrowers enjoy an expanded support network, while lenders enjoy less risk.  Best of all, everything’s totally automated for both sides: once your bank account is linked, there’s nothing you have to do to get paid or repaid on your loans, whether you’re involved in one loan or one hundred.

Applying just takes a few minutes and is without commitment: we’ll follow up to let you know if you’re a good fit and answer any questions before you decide.

We’ve seen great success with our existing borrowers so far, and if you’ve got an expensive outstanding loan, we hope you’ll consider joining in on the next batch.  Be sure to check out our home page and FAQ for more information, and shoot us a note at support@wefinance.co with any questions you have.

Saving with a Shorter Loan Term: It’s Not All or Nothing

At WeFinance, we spend a lot of time thinking and talking about the huge disparity between the interest rates that those with student debt are often forced to pay on their traditional student loans and the interest rates people can routinely earn on their savings.  We think that many borrowers stand to benefit from an option that reduces their rate.  But, at the same time, we realize it’s not always simply a matter of interest rate.  There are several other factors to consider when comparing loan options, and one factor that many borrowers cite as key to their decision making is the length of time they have to repay the loan.

Depending on the repayment plan they’re under, a borrower might have between 10 and 25 years to repay their loan.  That loan will cost a fortune in interest over that length of time, but a borrower may not feel they can commit to paying everything back in a shorter time period, especially if they already feel like their monthly payments are close to the limit of what they can currently afford. So they worry that options like WeFinance–where their refinancing comes from real people in their network, who may not be able to wait as long as 10 or more years to be repaid–may not make sense for them.

The incredible thing about compound interest, though, is that even refinancing a small part of your loan at a lower rate can save you a ton of money.  And, one good thing about most traditional student loans is that there’s no penalty for repaying a larger share of the loan early.  So, even if you can only afford a few extra dollars a month now, you can save thousands in the long run with a partial refinance.  And, even if your current situation doesn’t allow any increase in monthly payments, you might be able to save money anyway and even lower your current monthly payments with a partial refinance loan with payments deferred.  (WeFinance loans, for example, can either have monthly payments or a lump-sum payment at the end, at the discretion of the borrower.)

To help illustrate this, we released a new ‘Five-Year Plan’ calculator this week.  In about 30 seconds, you can see how various partial refinance options with lower rates over five years can save you a bunch of money relative to just simply paying off your current loan over 10 years.

For example, if you owe $50,000 at 6.8%, even just refinancing $5,000 of that loan, at a cost of less than $35 a month for the next 5 years, would save you nearly $60 a month for the 5 years after that, and $1,380 overall.

 

And, with a 5-year loan with deferred payments, you could actually lower your monthly payment by nearly $60, and still save about $800 overall, by refinancing just $5,000.  (And, of course, the amount saved goes up the more you refinance.)

 

Of course, everyone’s exact financial situation is different, and thinking carefully about what payments you’ll be able to afford when is extremely important.  But even if you don’t know exactly what your financial future holds, there still might be a lot of money you can save.  Try our calculator, check against your own loan information (remember, things may be slightly different depending on the rules of your specific loans), and see what makes sense for you.