Back in July we wrote about Lending Club's $5 referral bonus. Today Lending Club announced a new referral program that provides lenders with a bonus of up to $50 for referring friends to Lending Club. Lending Club's Rob Garcia answered a few questions about the program on the P2P No Bank forums. Here's an excerpt:
What are the terms of the program?
The referral program was initially introduced back in July as a $5 prize for any friend who joined. We quietly revamped it on Oct 25 to increase the prize to $25 for any friend who became a borrower OR lender. This was a test to see how users will receive it, and we noticed users liked this idea better. Today, we officially launched the program and the rules are:
When you refer friends to Lending Club and they become borrowers or lenders, we will deposit a bonus into both your and your friend's accounts:
- $25 when your friend successfully submits a loan application
- $25 when your friend opens a lender account with $1-$999
- $50 when your friend opens a lender account with $1,000 or more
Can I point my referrals to a different page?
Yes. You can use 2 different links.
LINK 1: http://www.lendingclub.com/landing.action?referrer=ScreenName
This one drops referrals on our home page, and if the user creates an account within the same session, you get the bonus. Use this for friends that still may need to read more on the concept before signing up:
LINK 2: http://www.lendingclub.com/refer.action?referrer=ScreenName
This one drops referrals on the sign-up form. Use this for friends you think are ready to sign.
Does the referred user have to sign up immediately or is the referral stored?
The information is stored in the session, so the referred user has to sign up while in the session. Information is not saved in our back end or a cookie. The session will "expire" if the user closes the browser. This means that if the user closes the window, and comes back next day to sign-up, and types up "lendingclub.com", the system will not recognize the referral.
In addition to changes in the referral program Lending Club announced several other improvements and changes which you can read about on the blog. They include:
- You know can be a borrower and a lender. However, before borrowing to lend you may want to read Matt's analysis of borrowing to lend strategies. Also, you can open multiple loans.
- Lending Club now has a performance statistics page.
- You can now ask borrowers a question.
Update (12/13): Lending Club has produced the following image for websites to use:
