Using P2P Lending For Free Credit Reports

My Money Blog has published one of those slightly underhanded tactics that have been known to P2P lending nerds for a while.

Prosper person-to-person lending offers up another perk - a free credit score for prospective borrowers. If you’re a lender already, it’s not too difficult to become a borrower. I just had to verify my address and phone numbers, and they offered up my credit profile. You will need to provide your Social Security number, though.

That's right. If you start the process to borrow money via Prosper or Lending Club, you can get a free peak at your credit report. Prosper uses Experian while Lending Club uses TransUnion. That's two credit reporting agencies, and we'll note that Prosper will refresh the credit report after 30 days. While I might sometimes feel guilty about pointing out this "feature", it's been an open secret amongst Prosper users for a long while and I'm not a big fan of open secrets.

Update: If you want to get your credit report through places that actually intend to give it to you in all it's glory, check out Simple Dollar's post.