Looking for a loan? Try P2P

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Saddled by student loans and credit card debt, Ryan Little was looking for relief. Like many, the 30-year-old insurance agent turned towards banks for a loan but he ended up finding a much better deal elsewhere, on the Internet, through a website called Lending Club (lendingclub.com).

Little eventually borrowed 10,000 dollars from 30 people he didn't know and had never met through Lending Club, a "peer-to-peer" or social lending network.

"The rates between the banks that I've looked at are anywhere from five to seven percent more than it is with Lending Club," Little said.

"It ends up being quite a significant amount of money depending on how much you are looking to get per year," he said. "I would say overall in three years it's probably going to save me about 3,000 dollars in interest payments alone."

Win the Race Against Car Loan Interest Rates

Everyone knows paying off mortgage prinicpal can net you tens of thousands of dollars in interest payments -- but what about car loans? With the help of the online Auto Loan Payoff Calculator from BankingMyWay.com, you can now figure that out.

The calculator provides an amortization schedule based on details such as loan amount, interest rate, duration and time remaining. It then calculates a second schedule based on additional monthly payments. The calculator compares the two, giving you the estimated savings.

Let's say you take out a 60-month, $18,000 loan at 6.77%, the recent national average for auto loans, according to rates published by BankingMyWay.com. If you get a raise after a year, you might consider making additional $50 monthly payments for the remaining 48 months. According to the calculator, doing so means you'd save $304 in interest payments by the time your loan is paid off.