"Within the peer-to-peer lending industry, student loans have become a special niche," FoxBusiness reports. "In peer-to-peer lending, a borrower requests a loan on a lending Web site. Depending on the site, either an individual lender or a group of lenders agrees to loan the money in exchange for an interest payment. Each site has its own method of determining the lending interest rate. Borrowers with good credit records typically get a better rate than they would from a bank."