Zopa. Neither a borrower nor a lender be!

Paul_Herring

TheLorax wrote: »

I have had great success on there which I could not have got from a savings account.

Zopa is not a cash-savings product. Comparing it to cash-savings accounts is comparing apples to oranges.

When your money isn't matched it sits in a current account accruing a nominal interest typical of many modern current accounts.

When your money isn't matched, it isn't earning any interest at Zopa - they stopped paying interest on that money ages ago.

jamesd

You can get 8% on up to £300 a month from First Direct with their 12 month regular saver with no investment risk, full capital value guarantee, FSCS protection and the FOS to help you if there's a problem.

Switching to investments, there's Zopa and other P2P lenders or you can get 6-8% with FSCS protection but no capital value guarantee from lots of unit trusts and similar investments.

Defensive autocalls are available at rates that usually vary between 8-12% depending on product. These pay out the interest if a specified market drops by a certain amount, or leave the money invested otherwise.

The nominal interest in the Zopa holding account is nil. They don't pay interest on money in the holding account, though they used to in the past.

MSE isn't going to bother deleting your post. Plenty of other people here who can point out the alternative options that currently offer better investment options than Zopa. This changes from time to time, markets are involved and market timing matters. Now happens to be a bad time to be investing via Zopa but that'll change from time to time.

agent69

jamesd wrote: »

You can get 8% on up to £300 a month from First Direct with their 12 month regular saver with no investment risk, full capital value guarantee, FSCS protection and the FOS to help you if there's a problem.

I think we are all aware of this accout as you only mentioned it 10 posts ago. What I can't understand is what type of investor this account is aimed at (other than the gulible sort that forget to move their cash at the end of the 12 months).

• The account is no good for any one with a lump sum to invest
• The account is no good for long term investors

To get the 8% you have to pay in monthly via a 1st account that pays no interest. There are conditions on the 1st accout so you either pay £120 account fee (which wipes out most of your 8% interest), have £1500 in the account all the time (which attracts 0% interest), or have to pay in £1500 amonth.

I have spare cash that I am trying to find a home for and would jump at any accout that offered 5% long term with no restrictions on deposits. Thruth is they don't exist.

And that's why I'm thinking of tyring a peer to peer lender.

agent69

polo-mk3 wrote: »

Unlike when you go to your bank for example, after you fill all that crap out and submit,

If you think that the information that the Bank asks for to determine your credit worthyness is "crap", then I'm glad Zopa turned you down.

I'm thinking of lending them money but I certainly wouldn't want it to go to somebody with your view of financial vetting processes.

jamesd

agent69 wrote: »

What I can't understand is what type of investor this account is aimed at (other than the gulible sort that forget to move their cash at the end of the 12 months).

Anyone who wants risk-free 8% on their money and who can act on the letter they will get shortly before the year ends.

agent69 wrote: »

• The account is no good for any one with a lump sum to invest
• The account is no good for long term investors

For both it is a useful part of the picture that can be used for some of the money. It's about putting together a good combination of savings and investments, not using just one thing to the exclusion of others - that would be bad diversification and diversification is one of the keys to investment risk reduction.

agent69 wrote: »

To get the 8% you have to pay in monthly via a 1st account that pays no interest. There are conditions on the 1st accout so you either pay £120 account fee (which wipes out most of your 8% interest), have £1500 in the account all the time (which attracts 0% interest), or have to pay in £1500 amonth.

Or you can place a penny in their ordinary savings account and do none of those things. The savings account eliminates the account fee.

agent69 wrote: »

I have spare cash that I am trying to find a home for and would jump at any accout that offered 5% long term with no restrictions on deposits. Thruth is they don't exist.

Sure they do. You're considering a P2P investment. Plenty of investments around that will pay out 5% or more tax free. I linked to a list of some of them and with those you can normally get your money out within a few weeks if you need to, though as usual for investments, the capital value varies.

agent69 wrote: »

And that's why I'm thinking of tyring a peer to peer lender.

P2P can be a good part of the package of investments and I use it myself as part of my own mixture. One of the strengths of P2P is its lack of correlation with many other investment types, so it can be of significant use for diversification.

Wayne61

I think in terms of the level of customer satisfaction Zopa is not consistent. Some are provided with a good level of service some poor. My experience was extremely poor. I put in an application for a loan 3 days ago, no response so I contacted them at lunch time and I was informed that I would be told as to the outcome of the loan in the afternoon. No response, so i rang again at 5.30pm and asked why I hadn't been contacted as promised, at which point I was told that I would be contacted in the next 30 minutes, guess what! No response!
Couldn't be bothered being lied to anymore, so I went to Santander, and got a better loan rate and spoke to someone who took a professional approach to their work.:j:rotfl:

supersaverg

I have just used Zopa for a temporary ''bridging loan'' (and will pay it back before the first intallment is even due) and found the service to be easy & excellent.

I think it does depends on your circumstances. I have a long and excellent credit history.

A good credit history is so important and will open doors not otherwise available.

I think bad credit historiy = bad borrowing options = High interest = less disposable income.

What are people to do?

supersaverg

Wayne61 ''I put in an application for a loan 3 days ago''


Did you realise you can express it for £50 or so if you need an answer quickly.


I really found them swift and kept me informed of any delays due to ''high volumes''

They have to match lenders to borrows with relevant risk levels to factor in, and are an online company.