Zopa...?

paul2468

Looking for £4000 and Zopa came out top for best rates by a long shot.....never heard of them before, has anyone on this board used them ?

chanz4

yes they are okay , they are a pier to pier lender. However they are slow and have a high standard of client

ViolaLass

chanz4 wrote: »

yes they are okay , they are a pier to pier lender. However they are slow and have a high standard of client

They tend to lend to people rather than seaside furniture though.

OP, I've not borrowed from them but have heard of them (I lend money through them). They seem OK to me. Watch the fees.

chanz4

funny haha

Vikipollard

*Incoming stupid question*...

For the uninitiated, what is a peer to peer lender please?

paul2468

Been on the website...they seem a good bet, liked what i saw and decided to have a go with them, simple and quick to use, plus about 9% cheaper to borrow with than lloyds, time will tell, i will let you know how i get on.

paul2468

Vikipollard wrote: »

*Incoming stupid question*...

For the uninitiated, what is a peer to peer lender please?

Person to person
.....:beer:

ViolaLass

paul2468 wrote: »

Person to person
.....:beer:

i.e. rather than me lending my money to the bank and then the bank lending money to you, I lend the money directly to you - I take more risk and get more interest in return.

paddyrg

also similar to zopa are ratesetter and yes-secure, they all work slightly differently with differing degrees of anonymity, but tend to favour the better rated borrowers

jamesd

paul2468 wrote: »

Looking for £4000 and Zopa came out top for best rates by a long shot.....never heard of them before, has anyone on this board used them ?

It's largely fine to use Zopa for borrowing money. I've a loan that's almost three years old there. There have been a few glitches with direct debits taken early, the worst a month in advance of the date I was given when I changed the bank account the direct debit was coming from. Not enough to stop me borrowing via Zopa again if it seemed appropriate.

When it comes to fees, note that Zopa has been changing the fee with the amount borrowed, so some amounts pay a lower fee than others. There's no penalty for borrowing a thousand or two more than you want and immediately repaying it if that's what it takes to get a lower fee. Here's what I saw today for a 36 month loan:

£1000-1900: £130 fee
£2000-2900: £160 fee
£3000-3400: £150 fee
£3500-3900: £160 fee
£4000-4400: £150 fee (6.8% APR for £4000)
£4500-4900: £160 fee
£5000-5400: £130 fee
£5500-6900: £140 fee (7.5% APR for 6900)
£7000-7400: £80 fee (6.8% APR for 7000, 6.8% APR for 7400)
£7500-15000 : £20 fee (6.2% APR for £7500)

If you think that you'll repay in less than the three year term the effect of the lower fee on the APR is greater than shown because it's split and spread over the initial term of the loan.

Notice the cute way they drop the fee around a round number used by price comparison sites then bump it back up again until the next key price.

There are similar differences for 60 month loans, with a fee of £190 between £2000 and £4900 then dropping to £80-90 for a while then back up to £130.

The lowest rates are when money has just been repaid by lots of borrowers, a few days after the start of a month. The 5th and 6th of January between 11PM and midnight may get the best available rates. Starting at 11 because that's just after an evening payment run allocates money to be lent again.

I've also lent money there but am not currently doing any more of that because of low rates.

paul2468

paul2468 wrote: »

Been on the website...they seem a good bet, liked what i saw and decided to have a go with them, simple and quick to use, plus about 9% cheaper to borrow with than lloyds, time will tell, i will let you know how i get on.

So easy to use, and 6% cheaper than what lloyds offered me, took me 5 min to fill in the form online and by 4pm today the money was in the bank....It cuts out the greedy bankers taking a wedge....anyone who is thinking of taking out a loan i would say look at zopa first......I have been converted.....:beer:.