Peer-to-peer lending sites: MSE guide discussion

rwgray

Ratesetter have concealed the option to set your own interest rate as a lender, and to view the Full Market quickly before doing so. You have to follow this link:

"Are you a RateSetter expert? Set your own rate here."

Otherwise, you will usually get the best rate that will be matched immediately by borrowers waiting for a loan, i.e. 0.1% down from the current bottom of the lending market! Beware.

I currently recommend a return to asking at least 6.7% over five years. Do not settle for less unless you want an instant match.

Rich.x

masonic

rwgray wrote: »

Ratesetter have concealed the option to set your own interest rate as a lender, and to view the Full Market quickly before doing so. You have to follow this link:

"Are you a RateSetter expert? Set your own rate here."

I've always placed lend orders via the "Latest Matched Rates" box below the other options in the side panel. It's still asking me to specify a rate there and the "View full market" link is still there.

cinereus

The markets seem to have gone pretty crazy since this change was introduced. In the 1 month market there's currently a huge wedge available to lend at 4% while the 1 and 3 year markets are struggling to get matched at that rate and the average over the last year has been much less. Any insight?

rwgray

MrOverheads wrote: »

...what attracts you to SS and what puts you off Rebs?

With SS, the rate is fixed and the security is transparent. There has to be outright fraud or a huge and immediate collapse in property values before your investment can fail to be covered at <=70% LTV. And in the latter case, you almost always have significant partial cover of the capital.

Lending to businesses with a director guarantee, the underlying risk is that when the struggling business finally publicly folds, the director already has assets worth less than an empty crisp packet. Directors of smaller companies tend to spend their assets (and ours) propping up trading for as long as possible - or make sure than any remaining assets are no longer legally associated with them.

Rich.x

george4064

I'm interested in getting involved with an account with Zopa, but I'm unsure in the tax implications? Do I have to declare any earnings from Zopa to HMRC or is all earnings net of fees and taxes?

I will most likely wait till P2P is available in ISA wrappers, anyone know when this might be?

Thanks in advance

Froggitt

Yes it needs declaring.

cinereus

P2P arbitrage - thoughts?

N1AK

rwgray wrote: »

I currently recommend a return to asking at least 6.7% over five years. Do not settle for less unless you want an instant match.

I'd definitely caution against this. I've had a small amount unmatched at 6.8% since mid-July, and I doubt 6.7% is all that different.

If you aren't interested in anything below 6.7% on Ratesetter then I wouldn't recommend putting it on the market now, there's no evidence to suggest we'll be seeing regular lending at that level for a couple of months.

Kendall80

N1AK wrote: »

I'd definitely caution against this. I've had a small amount unmatched at 6.8% since mid-July, and I doubt 6.7% is all that different.

If you aren't interested in anything below 6.7% on Ratesetter then I wouldn't recommend putting it on the market now, there's no evidence to suggest we'll be seeing regular lending at that level for a couple of months.

I'm currently at 7.8% net fully lent on Funding Circle on their highest rate A+ loans only. However, they are switching to fixed interest from next week so the future yields may well fall unfortunately.

Alpaca

cinereus wrote: »

P2P arbitrage - thoughts?

What do you mean? Borrowing from one p2p platform at a low rate to lend to another at a higher rate?