Pollywogs!

There has been a change in the breeze lately.   Folks are realizing that by allowing the rich and the reckless to have access to our money, we’re enabling them.   A smaller, local and //fiscally responsible// local or regional bank is vastly preferably to a large faceless entity who literally does not give a fuck about you or your life while they’re playing chicken with the US government, knowing that if they are big enough an irresponsible enough we’ll actually pay them to screw us over…I’d recommend a credit union if you have access to one!

http://moveyourmoney.info/

Speaking of having some rich asshole shove both hands into your pockets, what if you’re in the market for a loan…or you want to invest some money?   How can you do such a thing without entering the dirty and crooked world of finance?  I’d recommend Prosper, but apparently they aren’t allowed to operate within Pennsylvania at the moment. Lending Club is a service that connects people who want to borrow money with people who want to lend money.   You could even do both at the same time if the fancy struck you.   How it works is that say 100 people each have $50, and they’re looking for somewhere reasonably safe to invest their money.   You have an excellent credit score and a clean report, and qualify for perhaps a 8% loan.  You’re looking for $5,000 for a used car.   The lenders see your request and then can bid on your loan.   If you’re a very qualified candidate you may so many people may bid on your request that they drive your loan rate lower than you’d initially qualify for based on your credit report.   If you’re a risky candidate, you might have a rate at 15% or even higher.   The entire thing is actually quite clever and works very well, basically inserting normal people into the position only bankers would have access to…cutting out the middle man and reinserting humanity into the equation.   Oh, and you can make a buck or two if you are fortunate enough to have some extra cash laying around.

http://lendingclub.com/

What if you’d prefer to be a little more altruistic in your lending?   Kiva provides microloans to good people who simply don’t have enough money to get what they need to get done.   On the surface it operates much like Lending Club or Prosper, but instead of a credit report they have field investigators who search out entrepreneur who need an infusion of money.   I could explain in great detail how this can have an enormouse impact not only on the individual you loan to, but their entire community…but I’ll allow the Kiva website to do a better job.

http://www.kiva.org/