It's worth noting that the money received from the peer-to-peer lending counts as income, and hence can be taxed quite highly if you're already a high-income in

It's worth noting that the money received from the peer-to-peer lending counts as income, and hence can be taxed quite highly if you're already a high-income individual and/or live someplace with a state income tax. I invested a moderate chunk of money in lending club, and I don't regret it, but between the defaults and early payoffs, I ended up at around ~8% return, and then had to pay income tax on that 8 percent, which cut it way down. That being said, there's the more intangible return, which is that some of hte people I selected to fund were trying to get out of high-interest debt, or fund purchasing a car for work, etc. Some(all?) of it was probably BS, but it was nice to feel like you were investing money in someone who had a specific need and helping them achieve it. I'm not doing that anymore though, it's just not worth it.