To test this program I referred my wife to Prosper. She opened an account, transferred in $50, and funded a loan. Immediately after the loan was funded I got the following email from Prosper:
| Thank you for referring [name deleted] to Prosper. He or she funded a loan today. As a result, we have deposited a referral award of $25 into your Prosper account. |
My wife also got a corresponding email from Prosper. It read:
| Congratulations on funding your first Prosper loan! Because you were referred by Mateo, we have deposited an invitation award of $25 into your Prosper account. View your account now. The member who referred you, Mateo, also received a referral award for referring you to Prosper. You, too, can earn money by referring friends to Prosper. Learn more about Prosper's referral program. |
Corresponding messages also showed up under the messages tab in our Prosper accounts. The next business day after the loan had funded, $25 had been transferred into my Prosper account, and $25 had also been transferred by Prosper into my wife's account. It looks like Prosper is quickly paying out the referral award money as soon as the requirements of funding a loan are met.
Some lenders are trying all kinds of creative ways to earn money from the Prosper referral program including Google Adwords, links in online forums, submitting articles to Digg, and posting referral award ads on their personal websites. A quick Google search returns 47,000 search results related to the Prosper referral program.
