On the forums, Doug Fuller is the Vice President of Operations at Prosper recently announced an improvement in the collections program. An “Early Delinquency” letter series was tested during the early delinquency period (1 -30 days past due).

Half of the early delinquency population was sent a letter and half was not, the result was that 57% more recipients of the letter initiated a manual payment (41% vs 26%). Prosper has introduced a formal two letter series along with a process to automatically generate and send the letters.

The first letter will go out 15 days past due and mention the “community aspect” meaning that the money came from a group of individuals. The second letter is more traditional and discusses consequences.

This is a very positive development since the community aspect should serve as a strong incentive to pay the loan off.