Sunday, April 26, 2009

Uncrunch America Contest for $5,000 0% APR Loan


Uncrunch America is a consortium of peer to peer lending companies including Lending Club for personal loans, Virgin Money for mortgage loans and On Deck Capital for small business loans. Credit Karma and Geezeo are also part of the “Uncrunch” team because of their money management tools.

Uncrunch America formed in January 2009 because of the tightening credit market to educate people about social lending opportunity and available alternative capital sources. This month’s prize is a $5,000 interest-free loan. Participants submit an essay about how they would like to “Uncrunch America” through access to credit.

Participants can enter by submitting a story online and encouraging others to vote for it. Uncrunch America’s stated goal is to “help resolve the credit crunch and rebuild the economy by delivering consumers secure, trustworthy tolls and infrastructure to finance necessary expenses and make critical investments.

About the organization:

Lending Club is a social lending network where members borrow and invest money. Qualifying borrowers can obtain a personal loan of up to $25,000 at fixed interest rates for 3 years with no penalty for early payment. Read more here.

Virgin Money is a financial services pioneer dedicated to improving your overall mortgage experience. Read more here.

On Deck Capital is a direct lender for small businesses unable to obtain traditional funding or that need faster access to capital for unexpected business opportunities.

Credit Karma is a provider of free credit scores and credit improvement resources and tools.

Geezeo is a suite of online personal finance tools with tasks like budgeting.
You can read Tom's earlier post about the launch of the Uncrunch America campaign online here.

Jessica Ward is a freelance writer and blogger from Seattle. She also blogs at http://www.pennywisefamily.blogspot.com/.

8 comments:

Tom said...

Jessica, I just voted for your entry on Uncrunch America! You should publicize it here!

JessicaW said...

Thanks Tom, you're so nice! I'm always bad at self-promotion, but for anyone who's interested, my project is to start a revolving loan for families who're adopting children with HIV/AIDS. These kids aren't harder to parent (I know, I have one for a daughter) but there are barriers to adopting kids with medical needs (mostly fees for jumping through all the legal hoops of adoping a child with a medical condition).

If people interested in the experience of rasing a child with HIV/AIDS, I have a story coming out in the magazine "Seattle's Child" on the first of may. You can watch their web site for it.

Thanks!

Tom said...

What is the link so we can vote on your project?

JessicaW said...

Thanks! This is my link: http://www.uncrunch.org/uncrunchAmerica/uncrunchArticleDetail.action?guid=10502

Tom said...

Wow! 232 votes already.

niyati said...

Jessica you are doing great work.I'll surely vote for your entry.

JessicaW said...

Niyati, Thank you very much for your kindness.

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