Free Gifts From Lending Club’s DebtBuster Challenge

As I mentioned yesterday, the path to getting out of debt can sometimes be aided by consolidating your credit cards or loans. You might, for example, transfer your credit card balances to the one card with the lowest interest rate. With credit card issuers’ current practices, that will likely be a variable rate, subject to change.

I also suggested investigating options from peer-to-peer lenders. My own experiment with peer-to-peer lending as a lender failed because the intended borrower was restricted from using the service by his state. However, if your state allows you to find a loan at a rate that matches your credit risk, this could be a worthwhile option.

I am in favor of removing banks from the lending process, and peer-to-peer lending has matured into offering some of the best deals in the industry. Lending Club is currently running a promotion for new borrowers, sweetening the deal for those who either want to consolidate their credit card debt or want to borrow money for any other reason.

The promotion is called the DebtBuster Challenge. All you need to do is check to see what interest rate you qualify for before January 15. If you decide to list your loan with Lending Club through one of the links here, and you commit to repaying the loan within three years, you will receive a care package containing a Lending Club t-shirt, a backpack or sport pack, and orange pens which the company claims are famous.

For more information about Lending Club, listen to the Consumerism Commentary Podcast interview with Renaud Laplanche, co-founder and CEO of Lending Club, and Rob Garcia, senior director of product strategy and the brain behind the DebtBuster Challenge. Most of the interview focuses on peer-to-peer lending from the standpoint of the lender or investor, but there is important information for borrowers as well.

Four other blogs whose authors are serious about encouraging people to get out of debt are joining Consumerism Commentary in the DebtBuster Challenge: Debt Free Adventure, How to Get Out of Debt, Debt Kid, and The Digerati Life.

Here are 50 actions you can take right now to pay off debt. Last year, I boiled down getting out of debt to six (plus one) steps.

Take the Lending Club DebtBuster Challenge this Holiday Season, Lending Club, December 22, 2009