Zopa - voyarism

barnaby-bear · 23 July 2008 at 8:19AM

http://uk.zopa.com/ZopaWeb/Listings/

I'm toying with Zopa and trying to get my head round the whole thing. But the variety and financial-unawareness of some listings and SoAs is quite fascinating....

LilacPixie · 23 July 2008 at 8:28AM

oo i've never seen that before

Toto · 23 July 2008 at 8:31AM

I've not heard of this before, thanks BB it is interesting

But, I'm not sure how it works really. If you look at the offers lots of people are lending £10 ish, that is going to be an awful lot of loans to make up the amount people are asking for.

I assume that all of the odd £10 etc get put into a pot and the repayments are them split between all of the lenders, it sounds a nightmare to organise the whole thing. I'd worry that as a lender I would end up in a badly administrated mess. Of course I might have it totally wrong

barnaby-bear · 23 July 2008 at 10:23AM

Toto wrote: »

I've not heard of this before, thanks BB it is interesting

But, I'm not sure how it works really. If you look at the offers lots of people are lending £10 ish, that is going to be an awful lot of loans to make up the amount people are asking for.

I assume that all of the odd £10 etc get put into a pot and the repayments are them split between all of the lenders, it sounds a nightmare to organise the whole thing. I'd worry that as a lender I would end up in a badly administrated mess. Of course I might have it totally wrong

Two lending systems - one where the applicant checked by standard credit checking, risk evaluated etc and lenders choose a bundle of risk lending split over many (50+ borrowers) or the weirder listings system where individuals kind of assess the risk based on credit score/employment pay checks etc themselves and the borrower has to convince people to lend to them - bit car-crashy but fascinating..... The lowest APR bidders make up the final loan and it's all automatically (supposedly) administrated... as an investor the returns are supposed to better than savings but it sounds like gambling... cuts out the CC and banks....

elantan · 23 July 2008 at 10:44AM

that is really an interesting site ...very thanks for that BB

LilacPixie · 23 July 2008 at 11:11AM

I have seen others mention that they are lenders over there and do make a little cash back by lending. I think it was on the MFW board.

Uniscots97 · 23 July 2008 at 12:27PM

Zopa might just be a way forward for some people, just been and had a look. Thanks

beer_tins · 23 July 2008 at 12:49PM

I'd never heard of this, very interesting. Seems to me if you spread your risk e.g. £10 on 50 different people, you're likely get a fair bit back. Would like to know what the returns are like first though, e.g. how many people default and how much do they typically repay before that happens?!

barnaby-bear · 23 July 2008 at 9:13PM

beinerts wrote: »

I'd never heard of this, very interesting. Seems to me if you spread your risk e.g. £10 on 50 different people, you're likely get a fair bit back. Would like to know what the returns are like first though, e.g. how many people default and how much do they typically repay before that happens?!

There's a bit of info. online on average returns and defaults, no idea of accuracy or source:
http://www.moneyextra.com/news/news-zopa-passes-040170.html

Some of the investers seem happy
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=991315&highlight=zopa

I can't work it out if people are doing for a flutter, serious investing, social do-gooding - the listings seem a bit odd certainly some risky borrowers with really sad stories are getting people offering to lend at BoE (5%)... Is it a co-op like quidco or sheer greed for some lenders... it's certainly a very interesting model...

This one caught my eye as certianly not a mainstream lenders first choice but the socially network scene think otherwise

http://uk.zopa.com/ZopaWeb/Listings/consolidate-existing-debts/single-mum-trying-to-get-on-top-of-council-tax-and-utilities-after-husband-walked-out-leaving-a-mess/5daa7ee1.html

There was talk of an online credit union at one point but never heard more but not sure what to make of it....

lynzpower · 23 July 2008 at 9:19PM

Its the people begging to pay 12% for cars and home improvements that worry me

Gemmzie · 23 July 2008 at 9:23PM

I've heard of Zopa before but never really looked into it - interesting stuff

Zopa - voyarism

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