The lending business online has taken on a life of it’s own. It used to be that anyone interested in financing would approach their local bank sit down and talk to a loan manager about their financing needs. The internet has changed that completely. Without even leaving one’s home, hundreds of thousands of dollars can be obtained in a very short amount of time from a variety of sources for a variety of purposes ranging from student to small business loans.

Most people are familiar with traditional lending programs, some of the more popular ones are:

• Credit cards
• Lines of credit
• Personal Loans and small business loans
• Cash advances
• Leasing
• Mortgages

Let me introduce you to P2P lending if you don’t already know what it is. P2P stands for “peer to peer”. I’m sure you are familiar with P2P file sharing, where individuals share files, uploading and downloading pieces from a group of people with the common files. P2P lending is similar in the sense that a person seeking a loan can acquire pieces of their desired funding amount fro a group of individuals.

One of the biggest know sites is Prosper. Their peer to peer lending solution offers individuals interested in investing a way to reach other individuals interested in financing. One invests in the other and everyone gets what they want. It’s an amazing way to provide loans based on different criteria with an investment pool that isn’t limited by corporate agendas and board policies. Prosper is heavily focused on personal loans.

So no matter what it is you are looking for in terms of financing or credit, there are plenty of options online. The best part is… you probably won;t have to even get dress to go to a formal meeting in order to apply. The loan business got a lot bigger with the internet.