The Offer
- LendingClub is offering a bonus of up to 100,000 United miles. You receive 1 mile per $1 invested for taxable accounts. The minimum you can invest to receive miles is $2,500
The Fine Print
- This offer is valid for individual LendingClub investors. For investors to receive miles, an investor must open or have an eligible taxable LendingClub investment account, enter an eligible United MileagePlus number above or at www.lendingclub.com/investor/settings/mileageplus, transfer New Funds of at least $2,500 and invest the New Funds through the LendingClub platform between October 9, 2017 and January 9, 2018. An investor’s United MileagePlus number must be provided to LendingClub prior to the transfer of any New Funds for such New Funds to be eligible for this offer. LendingClub will submit records of qualifying activity to United for processing after the conclusion of the offer period.
- For purposes of this offer, “New Funds” means the amount of increase in the Available Cash of an eligible taxable investor account (as displayed on the Summary account page) resulting from the transfer (in one or more transfers) of funds from an external bank account (i.e. excluding principal and interest received on Notes then held in such account) during the offer period of October 9, 2017 through January 9, 2018. For purposes of this offer, “invest”, “investment”, or “investing” means funds have been used to purchase Notes through the LendingClub platform. Purchases of Notes on the Folio Investing Note Trading Platform* or any other secondary market do not qualify as investing
- Upon the transfer and investment of the first $2,500 of New Funds, an investor will qualify to receive 2,500 miles. For every dollar of New Funds transferred and invested in excess of $2,500, a new investor will qualify to receive 1 mile, up to a maximum aggregate bonus of 100,000 miles during the offer period of October 9, 2017 through January 9, 2018. One bonus per United MileagePlus® account. Offer expires on January 9, 2018. Offer not valid for non-taxable IRA accounts or entity taxable accounts. Notes on LendingClub platform may have limited inventory or availability and Investor ability to invest in Notes is subject to Note inventory and availability on LendingClub platform.
Our Verdict
LendingClub is a peer to peer lending platform. The idea is that individuals apply for a loan and then this loan is crowdfunded by multiple borrowers (in this case, you). Obviously not all borrowers pay their loans back on time so this is far from a risk fee investment. LendingClub takes a 1% fee for the acting as the intermediary. Personally I think you’re better off sticking with a federally insured savings account and some of these offer an APY of 5% with virtually no risk (again, federally insured). I also don’t think a bonus of 1 mile per $1 invested should be enough to sway readers into deciding whether to invest with LendingClub or not. I’d strongly recommend you to do your own research, it’s also important to take note of when reviewers are/aren’t receiving a commission for new LendingClub sign ups.
